Common English mistakes, by first language.

The traffic in my city very bad and many people angry about it.

The traffic in my city is very bad and many people are angry about it.

Arabic forms a complete sentence without a present-tense verb. English never does. Get be in place first – everything else is easier after it.

a woman that practice massage

a woman who practises massage

A singular subject takes the -s form; and for a person, WHO is the natural relative pronoun – that is possible, but who reads better.

WhyCatalan and Spanish mark person and number on the verb ending, so the subject is often dropped and the English -s becomes a separate habit to acquire.

I wanted to feel healthier so that I stopped eating sweets.

I stopped eating sweets so that I could feel healthier.

So that points at the goal, and the goal goes second. Action first, purpose after.

not as big as on Christmas

not as big as at Christmas

English fixes festivals with AT: at Christmas, at Easter, at the weekend – but keeps ON for named days (on Saturday). So: at the season, on the day.

WhyGerman marks festivals with an: an Weihnachten, an Ostern. Because an often means 'on', it surfaces in English as on Christmas.

a lot of stuffs were sold

a lot of stuff was sold

Stuff is uncountable: it takes no plural -s, and it takes a singular verb.

WhyKorean's plural marker -deul is optional and many nouns work as collective singulars, so the English -s has to be supplied deliberately – and a few nouns that look countable are not: stuff (not stuffs), sheep (not sheeps), information, advice.

Active travel accounted for 14% and 19 in London and Tokyo respectively.

Active travel accounted for 13% and 10% in London and Tokyo respectively.

The figures belong to two other cities on the same chart – which he then quotes correctly in the next paragraph. A transcription habit, not a comprehension gap, and it took Task Achievement from roughly 8 to 6. Plan the numbers city by city, then read only the numbers back against the chart.

Function returns pointer to buffer, so caller must free memory before process exits.

The function returns a pointer to the buffer, so the caller must free the memory before the process exits.

Six determiners missing from one sentence of otherwise near-native syntax. Polish has no article system, so nothing prompts them.

They must be celebrating something special, I have to find a table.

They must be celebrating something special, so I have to find a table.

Russian punctuates by clause and a comma may legally join two full clauses. English punctuates by sentence. Cover each side of the comma: if both halves stand alone, you need a full stop, a semicolon, a dash, or and / but / so / because.

every patient have a real chance

every patient has a real chance

'Every' is grammatically singular however many people it covers: every patient has, every second person responds.

It is tougher as we get older.

The older we get, the tougher it becomes.

The double comparative. He can build one – he had already produced The more action a government takes, the more progress it will make. The job is reaching for it under pressure, not learning it.

I sometimes do mistakes

I sometimes make mistakes

MAKE tends to go with producing or causing a result – make a mistake, make a decision, make progress, make a backup; DO goes with activities and work – do research, do a scan, do your homework, do the configuration.

WhySwedish göra covers both English verbs (göra misstag = literally 'do mistakes'), so the split has to be learned as fixed pairs rather than derived. Same trap German speakers hit with machen and Slovak with robiť.

Many women experience sickness; it usually a normal.

Many women experience sickness; it is usually normal.

Turkish lets an adjective stand alone – o normal. English cannot: every finite clause needs a verb, and where there is no action, be is the verb.

I think South Eastern area of Moscow

the south-eastern area of Moscow

An of-phrase pins a noun down, so the noun it modifies takes the definite article.

WhyUkrainian has no articles at all; specificity rides on case, word order and demonstratives (цей / той). The genitive район Москви already marks the noun as specific and pinned down, so the reader needs no extra word – English has no such case ending to lean on and spends the to do the same job.

The results were surprising : consumption fell by 40 % in one year.

The results were surprising: consumption fell by 40% in one year.

French sets a space before high punctuation and around the percent sign. English closes both up.

If I had travelled, I would learn

If I had travelled, I would have learned

The unreal past needs its full stack in BOTH clauses: IF + had + V3, then WOULD + HAVE + V3.

WhyArabic marks the unreal past once, at the front door – law safartu, la-ta'allamtu ('if I-travelled, then-I-learned'): the particle law plus a perfect verb in each clause, and the counterfactual meaning is done. English distributes the work across both clauses, and the result-clause stack is the part Arabic never asks the speaker to build.

this company don't want to hire anyone

this company doesn't want to hire

With a singular subject the negative carries the -s through do-support: doesn't, didn't.

WhyBecause the person marking lives on the Catalan/Spanish verb ending, the isolated English -s and its do-support partner have to be learned as one habit.

We went to the Paris and met the Grandma at the station.

We went to Paris and met Grandma at the station.

Proper nouns take no article – place names and family names used as names alike.

the car you're allowed to drive with 18

the car you're allowed to drive at 18

English states an age with AT: at 18, at the age of 18. WITH is never used for age.

WhyGerman states an age with mit: mit 18 ('with 18' = 'at the age of eighteen'), so mit is carried straight across as with.

people don't go out of Korea

people don't leave Korea / don't go abroad

English keeps go out of for small enclosed spaces – a room, a building, a lift. For a whole country it switches verb entirely: LEAVE (transitive, no preposition) or the set phrase GO ABROAD / TRAVEL ABROAD.

WhyIn Korean, leaving somewhere is a motion verb plus a place: naga-da means 'go out', and you can go out of a country as easily as a room. The particle does the directional work, so the verb stays general – translated word for word it becomes go out of, which is grammatical English but not what anyone says about a country.

Governments subsidise public transport, as such reducing congestion.

Governments subsidise public transport, thereby reducing congestion.

As such means in that capacity. For a result use thereby + -ing, or thus, or and so.

half year ago

half a year ago

Add a to a singular countable noun, and keep the idiom half a year (or simply six months).

WhyPolish has no articles, so they slip even at C2 – every English a and the has to be supplied fresh on the English side.

Most of people arrive after midnight.

Most people arrive after midnight.

Two different structures. MOST + bare noun for people in general; MOST OF + THE for a specific group already named.

a specialist in a gastric cancer

a specialist in gastric cancer

The preposition was the target and it was right – in. But a disease or a field is uncountable here, so no a.

Living abroad is difficult, however it teaches you quickly.

Living abroad is difficult. However, it teaches you quickly.

Written Spanish tolerates the comma chain; English does not. However is an adverb, not a conjunction.

I read about the exploit in a forum

I read about the exploit on a forum

English chooses between on, in and at by context; the pairing has to be stored, not reasoned out.

WhySwedish på and i don't line up one-to-one with English ON/IN/AT (på ett forum = 'on a forum', not 'in a forum').

We recommend vaccine because it protects the baby.

We recommend the vaccine because it protects the baby.

A specific thing already in play takes the. First-mention countable takes a/an. An uncountable or a whole field takes nothing.

he claimed Iberian peninsula will turn into a huge burden

the Iberian peninsula will turn into a huge burden

Named geographical features – peninsulas, seas, ranges – take the.

WhyUkrainian has no article system, so a named feature arrives in English bare; definiteness in the first language is carried by case, word order and context.

The government must control the actual figures before deciding.

The government must check the current figures before deciding.

Two false friends in one clause: contrôler is to check, and actuel is current. At C2 these are the errors left.

I want to enter university the future

I want to go to university in the future

Learn the English time phrase whole, preposition included: in the future, at school, in the end. And natives overwhelmingly say go to university; enter university is understood but carries a slight accent of the classroom.

WhyArabic fi l-mustaqbal = 'in the future'. The fi slipped out in transfer, though notice the article survived the journey. Arabic preposition-verb pairings differ from English, so pairs like depend on, consist of and interested in must be stored as fixed units rather than derived.

I am going to a good way

I'm on the right track

The English idiom is on the right track, or things are going well. When a phrase feels translated whole, it usually is.

WhyCatalan anar per bon camí / Spanish ir por buen camino carried over intact.

AI just a tool

AI is just a tool

Every English sentence needs a verb, and where there is no other verb the verb is a form of BE.

WhyChinese often leaves out the 'be' word, especially before describing words – tā gāo means 'he tall', with no is. English always needs it: AI is just a tool, he is tall.

good in English

good at English

Skills take AT: good at English, brilliant at improvising – and AT stays even when an -ing form follows.

WhyGerman gut in Englisch places in where English requires at.

at weekdays

on weekdays

AT for clock times and night (at 7, at night); ON for days and dates (on Monday, on weekdays, on my birthday); IN for months, years and longer stretches (in July, in the morning).

WhyKorean uses one time particle, -e, for what English splits into AT, ON and IN, so the English choice is the whole difficulty – there is nothing in the first language to select from.

The proportion of people travelling by car were the highest in every city.

The proportion of people travelling by car was the highest in every city.

The verb agrees with proportion, not with the nearest noun. Agreement breaks at exactly the distance where the subject stops being visible.

they were not paying last few invoices

not paying the last few invoices

Add the when the noun is specific and identified: the last few invoices is a known, particular set.

WhyPolish has no article system, so definiteness that Polish carries by context has to be spelled out in English with the.

The queue was that bad that we left. I only work on the weekend, and I asked where the restroom was.

The queue was so bad that we left. I only work at the weekend, and I asked where the toilets were.

Three British-English corrections in one line: so … that for the result pair; at the weekend, not on; and restroom is American – in Britain ask for the toilets, or the Ladies and the Gents.

In a past few months, we have seen

In the past few months, we have seen

A fixed phrase: the past few months, the last few weeks.

This will be resumed in one sentence.

This can be summed up in one sentence.

A false friend: Spanish resumir means to summarise. English resume means to start again after a pause.

The scanner run every hour

The scanner runs every hour

The English third-person singular -s has to be maintained deliberately: the scanner runs, it depends, she has access.

WhySwedish verbs don't inflect for person or number (jag är, du är, han är), so the English -s is purely English-side work with no cue in the first language.

The contractions are every five minutes, before the patient come to hospital.

When the contractions are every five minutes, come to hospital.

Two things at once: the connector names a condition, so when, not a tacked-on before; and the patient come → comes. British English keeps bare hospital for the institution: come to hospital, keep a patient in hospital.

the governor of Lombardy region

the governor of the Lombardy region

A region built as NAME + common noun takes the: the Lombardy region.

WhyThe first language marks the relation with a genitive case ending, so the noun arrives in English already pinned down and nothing prompts the article.

they superstition

they are superstitious

If there is no action verb in the sentence, the verb is BE. English never allows a verbless clause.

WhyArabic forms a present-tense sentence with no verb at all – al-bayt kabir, 'the-house big', is complete and correct – so English's little engines are exactly what the ear does not yet expect.

it's made by chestnut, sugar, egg and flour

it's made with chestnut, sugar, egg and flour

Use BY only for the doer of a passive (painted by her); use WITH or FROM for ingredients or material.

WhyEnglish splits what Catalan/Spanish de, con and por blend into fewer options.

some people think pets is a part of their lives

...pets are a part of their lives

Match plural to plural: a plural subject takes a plural verb (pets are).

WhyChinese verbs never change for the subject – the same verb is used whoever does it – so English agreement has to be built fresh.

in primetime

at prime time

Clock-like time slots take AT: at prime time, at midnight, at the interval.

WhyGerman in der Hauptsendezeit places in where English requires at.

My friends is the same

My friends are the same

A plural subject takes a plural verb: friends are, people are.

WhyKorean verbs do not change for person or number (na-neun gayo, neo-neun gayo – same verb), so English agreement is built entirely English-side.

Governments should relax regulations which mitigate the responsibility of industry.

Governments should relax the regulations that oblige industry to act.

The thesis contradicted itself: regulations that mitigate responsibility are the ones he wants relaxed, which argues the opposite case. Check the thesis says the thing you spend four paragraphs proving.

I don't have team under me

I don't have a team under me

A singular countable noun takes a: a team, a sales team.

WhyPolish has no articles, so a singular countable noun arrives bare unless the speaker adds the article consciously.

He must have been having too many drinks.

He must have had too many drinks.

The original was already right – this one was broken by over-correcting under instruction. A completed cause takes must have had; the continuous adds nothing.

I am the specialist in wound care management

I am a specialist in wound care management

You are a specialist – one of several – not the one. The definite article claims uniqueness you did not mean to claim.

everybody want to

everybody wants to

Everybody, everyone and each are grammatically singular, always.

WhySpanish agreement is rich, so this is not an L1 gap but a load problem: the English third-person -s carries almost no meaning, and meaning-light morphology is the first thing to drop when attention is on the argument.

it depends of the ruleset we loaded last week

it depends on the ruleset we loaded last week

Verb + preposition pairs are stored whole, not derived: depend on, rely on.

WhyThis is one of the pairs that does match – Swedish bero på maps straight onto depend on – so the work is storing the fixed verb+preposition unit rather than translating the preposition.

The chart was worried.

The chart was worrying.

One test: who is feeling it? People take -ed. Things – charts, traces, trends, observations – take -ing.

they ran family business

they ran a family business

A first-mention countable noun takes a/an.

WhyUkrainian has no indefinite article, so first-mention countables surface bare.

when I be alone

when I am alone

The bare form 'be' is never a tense. Conjugate it: am / is / are / was / were.

WhyArabic needs no present copula at all, so the English BE has no native anchor and surfaces in its citation form when the speaker knows a verb is required but has no habit of inflecting it.

I am looking forward the weekends

I am looking forward to the weekends

Look forward always takes TO.

WhySome English verbs carry a fixed preposition the L1 does not supply: look forward to, depend on, think about. Store them as whole units.

technology affect education negatively

technology affects education negatively

Add the -s for he/she/it: one thing → affects.

WhyChinese verbs never change for the subject (yǐngxiǎng doesn't add anything), so the English ending is the new habit. A quick 'who, one or many?' check catches every one.

The footage was being edited by us while the interviews were still getting conducted.

We were editing the footage while the interviews were still being conducted.

German carries the agent comfortably in the passive; English gets heavy. If you know who did it, say so and use the active.

there are too much stuffs to organise

there is too much stuff to organise

Stuff is an uncountable noun – no plural -s, and a singular verb with it.

WhyKorean's optional plural marker -deul lets many nouns function as collective singulars, so learners either omit the English -s or, having learned the rule, over-apply it to nouns that refuse it.

Moreover, education is a right, and it is important for everyone, and governments should pay for it.

Beyond fairness, public funding pays for itself: a better-educated workforce raises tax revenue, which offsets the initial cost.

The original asserts; the upgrade develops – claim, then mechanism, then consequence. That single move is what lifts Task Response to 7.

you should invest in sales team

invest in a sales team

First-mention singular countable nouns take a, even inside a compound: a sales team.

WhyPolish supplies no article to copy, so the slot stays empty at speed.

a largest lake

the largest lake

An attributive superlative takes THE: there is only one largest, so it is definite by nature. (After a possessive the slot is filled – his largest lake – and if you mean one among several, say one of the largest lakes.)

WhyRussian has no words equivalent to a/an or the; specificity is carried by demonstratives, word order and case marking, so the English article has to be chosen consciously every time.

we have seen better response

we have seen a better response

A singular count noun needs its article, even when a comparative is sitting in front of it.

we also works together with our business law department

we also work together with our business law department

A plural subject never takes the singular -s; this is a hypercorrection, evidence that the -s system is unstable in both directions under speed.

WhySpanish marks person and number on the verb ending (trabajo 'I-work', trabaja 'he/she-works'), so the isolated English -s is a separate habit that either drops or over-applies under pressure.

since three days

for three days

FOR takes a duration, SINCE takes a starting point: for three days / since Monday.

WhySwedish sedan covers both 'since' and a duration that English would render with for (sedan två år), so one Swedish word has to be split across two English ones.

There were three options, however Monitoring was the safest.

There were three options. However, monitoring was the safest.

However is not a joining word. It needs a full stop in front of it and a comma after. Same family as therefore and as a result.

since the ancient Greece times

since ancient Greek times

Before a noun such as times, use the adjective (ancient Greek), not the country noun – and the generic time phrase takes no article.

rural areas so far from cities

rural areas are so far from cities

A clause with an adjective and no action has its verb hidden in plain sight: add are.

WhyThe Arabic equational sentence – al-bayt kabir, 'the-house big' – is grammatically complete without a verb, which is exactly the shape this clause has taken into English.

you can take a drink or you can take an ice cream

you can have a drink or have an ice cream

English uses HAVE for food and drink: have a coffee, have lunch, have an ice cream.

WhyCatalan prendre and Spanish tomar cover both take and have, so prendre una beguda comes out as *take a drink*.

food are spicier

food is spicier

The rule underneath: food is uncountable → food is; cars is plural → cars are.

WhyMandarin verbs don't change for the subject (wǒ qù, tā qù, tāmen qù – all the same), and nouns don't mark number, so is vs are gets guessed.

you have to do something what you couldn't rehearse

you have to do something that (or which) you couldn't rehearse

After something / anything / everything / nothing, the relative word is THAT (or nothing at all), never what. What only works when it means 'the thing which' with no earlier noun: I know what you mean.

WhyGerman uses was as the relative pronoun after indefinite words like etwas ('something'): etwas, was du nicht proben konntest. Carried across, was becomes what.

would have had

will have had

The future perfect is will have + past participle: it looks ahead and says something will be finished by a future point. Would have is the conditional and belongs to imaginary or 'if' situations. If the question says will, the answer says will.

WhyKorean has no perfect tense at all. It marks the past with -ass-/-eoss- and the future with -(eu)l keo-, and leaves 'by then, already completed' to context and adverbs – so the English future perfect is an entirely new structure, and the hand reaches for the nearest familiar shape, the conditional would have.

elderly people doesn't

elderly people don't

People is plural. Learn the small set of English plurals that hide: people, children, men, women, police, staff – all taking are / do / have / receive.

WhyThis is English's fault, not transfer. Lithuanian žmonės ('people', written žmonės) wears its plural openly in the ending, so the number is never in doubt; English hides the plural in a word with no -s to warn you, and the eye pulls the verb towards doesn't.

make a photo of yourself

take a photo of yourself

English fixes this verb as take – take a photo, take a picture – and the wider split is take a photo, make a decision, do the work, have a meeting.

WhyPolish robić zdjęcie is literally 'make/do a photo', so the Polish light verb rides across into English where English insists on take.

it's ancient palace

it's an ancient palace

A first-mention countable noun takes A/AN – and the vowel sound calls for AN.

WhyRussian marks no definiteness with a determiner, so a first-mention countable arrives in English bare.

a real improvements

a real improvement (or: real improvements)

A goes with one countable thing. Either drop the plural or drop the a – never both.

I don't know if that have sense in English

I don't know if that makes sense in English

A singular subject takes the -s form: that has, that makes.

WhyTwo faults share the sentence: the agreement, and the calque of tener sentido ('to have sense'), which English renders as make sense.

You can see the misconfiguration on the screenshot I attached

You can see the misconfiguration in the screenshot I attached

English puts things in a picture, a screenshot or an image, not on one.

WhySwedish på spreads across on/at/in – på bilden is literally 'on the picture', which surfaces in English as on the screenshot.

I am ready this lesson

I am ready for this lesson

Ready takes for before the thing you are ready for.

WhyTurkish has no free-standing prepositions; it welds those meanings onto the noun as case endings. Ready for the lesson is derse hazırım – the -e ending is the 'for'. In English the meaning has nowhere to hide and must become a separate little word in front.

he was not in the politics, he was behind the scenes

he was not in politics; he was behind the scenes

An abstract noun used generically takes the zero article: in politics, under pressure, with patience. And two full clauses need more than a comma – a semicolon carries the contrast.

WhyUkrainian той / та / те / ті ('that / those') doubles as a definiteness marker in transfer and can be over-deployed, attaching the to generic abstracts that English leaves bare.

Online shopping it is grown rapidly

Online shopping has grown rapidly

One subject per clause. Online shopping is the subject; the extra it repeats it. And grown needs has, not is.

WhyArabic often names the topic and then repeats it with a pronoun; the doubling is normal there and English never allows it.

to pack papers into one

to hold papers together

A paperclip holds or keeps papers together.

American food are more unhealthy

American food is more unhealthy

An uncountable subject takes a singular verb, however plural the idea feels.

WhyMandarin nouns don't mark number and the verb never agrees, so the English is/are choice has no counterpart to copy from.

The AT Convergence

Four different German prepositions all need to land on one English answer – AT. German gives you in for skills, an for festivals, mit for ages, and in der for broadcast time slots. English collapses all four doors into one: at. Each slip is a perfectly logical translation of the German preposition, which is exactly why the pattern persists at C1 when the harder grammar has already been absorbed.

• gut in Englisch → good at English (skills take AT)
• an Weihnachten → at Christmas (festival periods take AT)
• mit 18 → at 18 (ages take AT)
• in der Hauptsendezeit → at prime time (clock-like time slots take AT)

CautionDo not over-correct. Days of the week still take ON – on Saturday stays on Saturday, and on opening night stays on.

would have adopted

will have adopted

A question in the future perfect (What will you have done by...?) must be answered in the future perfect: will have + past participle.

WhyKorean has no morphological perfect, so there is no direct equivalent of have done or will have done to transfer; the structure has to be built new in English.

elderly people receives

elderly people receive

Plural subject, bare verb, no -s.

WhyLithuanian marks person and number richly on the verb and is pro-drop, so agreement errors in English are almost never conceptual: the first language is stricter about agreement than English, not looser. The English third-person -s simply carries very little meaning, so it is the first thing to slip under the load of composing an argument.

those kind of metrics works in big corporate

those kinds of metrics work in big corporations

Match the demonstrative to the noun – this kind of case, these kinds of cases – then agree the verb with the real head noun (kinds... work). Corporation is the noun; corporate is the adjective.

WhyPolish agreement is rich but distributed differently, so the English demonstrative-noun match and the true-head-noun agreement have to be checked by hand.

two people was playing on Hang (drum)

two people were playing the Hang

English plays instruments directly, with THE: play the drum, the piano, the guitar.

WhyRussian играть на + prepositional case (играть на барабане) is what puts the on there.

The list of products that our team distribute to regional pharmacies were updated last week.

The list of products that our team distributes to regional pharmacies was updated last week.

Two subjects lost at two different distances. Agreement is not the problem – sentence length is. Find the head noun, then the verb.

it depend on external factors

it depends on external factors

A singular subject takes the -s form.

WhyThe correct form it depends appeared in the very next sentence: the form is known, the habit is the work.

I've finally gotten my phone

I've finally got my phone

In British English the past participle of get is got: I have got, I've never got, it had got worse. Gotten is the American form. (One genuine exception survives in BrE: ill-gotten gains – a fixed phrase.)

WhyNot an L1 calque at all but a dialect import: Swedish learners pick up most of their English from American media, gaming and tech, so gotten, math and gray arrive with the territory. For British English the set is got, maths, grey. Note that -ize is NOT on that list: it is Oxford spelling and perfectly British, even though -ise is the more common choice here.

I live a flat

I live in a flat

You live in a place – in a flat, in a house.

WhyTurkish carries this inside the noun with a case ending: dairede is 'in a flat', where the -de ending is the 'in'. The relation is already expressed by the time the noun is finished, so the separate English word is easy to leave out.

they were controlling the most of it

they were controlling most of it

The quantifier most of takes no article before it: most of it, most of the report – never the most of.

all of the people buying everything

people buy everything / people are buying everything

An -ing form on its own is not a full verb – the sentence has no engine.

WhyArabic can say hum asihha' – 'they healthy' – with no verb at all. English cannot: if there is no action, the verb is be.

living in a countryside

living in the countryside

The countryside is a fixed, unique-reference phrase – always the, never a.

WhyRomance article distribution does not line up with English, and the error runs in both directions: an unwanted a before a unique place, a dropped article before transport nouns.

Chinese cars is more expensive

Chinese cars are more expensive

A plural subject takes are – and the comparative itself never changes; only the verb has to agree with the subject in front of it.

WhyMandarin marks neither agreement nor number, so the plural noun gives the verb no signal.

Four doors, one answer: in, an, mit and in der all walk through the same English door – AT.

there are sushis on plates

there is sushi on the plates

Sushi is uncountable, like rice, bread or water: it takes no plural -s. If you want to count it, count the pieces – three pieces of sushi.

WhyThe usual Korean-L1 error is a missing -s, because -deul is optional; this is the mirror image – the plural rule learned and then over-applied to a mass noun that refuses it.

they have to lend money from their grandchildren

they have to borrow money from their grandchildren

English splits the transaction into two different verbs: you lend money to someone (it leaves you); you borrow money from someone (it comes to you).

WhyLithuanian marks reflexivity inside the verb with the suffix -si / -s. skolinti means 'to lend'; skolintis – the very same root plus the reflexive -s – means 'to borrow'. In Lithuanian the direction of the money is carried by one suffix, so a speaker reaching for the familiar root skolin- will often land on the wrong English verb. Note the preposition from was already correct, which shows the meaning was never in doubt.

the connection between Western side and Eastern side

between the Western side and the Eastern side

Use the for the specific and identifiable – the Western side, the Eastern side.

WhyPolish has no articles, so English supplies them fresh in both directions: under-use where English needs one, over-use where English needs none.

there are a lot of functions in phones

phones have a lot of features

English tech-talk says features, not functions – and the possession frame (phones have) is more natural than there are ... in.

WhyRussian функции reaches for the English cognate functions.

every second people

every second person

After every, the noun is singular too – not just the verb.

he call directly the clients

he calls the clients directly

Manner adverbs sit after the object, never between the verb and its object.

WhySpanish permits an adverbial between verb and object, so the order feels natural; English treats verb and direct object as a bonded pair.

on the summer

in (the) summer

English uses in for seasons, months and years: in summer, in July, in 2026. The rough map: on for days and dates (on Monday, on 3 July); in for longer stretches (in summer, in the morning); at for points (at noon, at night).

WhyThe on comes straight from Swedish på sommaren – på is a single preposition that English splits into on / in / at depending on context.

among woman

among women

After among the noun must be plural, because among means 'in the middle of several'. And woman pluralises irregularly to women – one of the pairs (woman/women, man/men, child/children, foot/feet) that must be learned as a pair.

WhyTurkish keeps a noun singular after a quantifier – çok kadın is literally 'many woman' – because the quantifier already signals plurality and the noun need not repeat it. English disagrees and marks it twice.

the night before yesterday's night

the night before last

English compresses the whole time expression into one fixed phrase – the night before last, the day before yesterday – with no doubling of the noun.

WhyUkrainian позавчора вночі packs 'the-day-before-yesterday' and 'at night' into one tidy phrase; carried across word for word it doubles the noun in English.

online shopping a reason for close a lot of stores in the world

online shopping is one reason many shops have closed

The missing is. Arabic needs no present 'to be'; English always does. And after for, never a bare verb.

WhyThe Arabic equational sentence is complete without a copula, so the English is has nothing in the first language prompting it into existence.

I get up at 7am on the morning

I get up at 7am in the morning

English sorts time by size: a long stretch takes IN, a point takes AT, a day or date takes ON. Notice what is already right – at 7am is a point, and it was correct without thinking.

WhyCatalan says al matí ('at-the morning'), and that al is a + el, where a is the everyday word for English at and to. So when the English time preposition is reached for, at or on arrives, because that is what a becomes in a hundred other phrases.

The Hong Kong is the most expensive place

Hong Kong is the most expensive place

Most city names take no article at all. (A few names do keep the – the USA, the UK, the Philippines – but those are the exception, usually plurals or 'republic/kingdom' names.)

WhyMandarin has no articles, so they get added in unexpected places – specificity comes from demonstratives (zhè 'this', nà 'that') and word order instead.

Days still take ON: on Saturday, on opening night. Don't over-correct the new AT habit onto days.

about one hours away

about an hour away (or one hour away)

After ONE, the noun stays singular: one hour, two hours. English changes the noun at exactly two, and never at one.

WhyKorean counts through classifiers – han sigan ('one hour'), chaek du gwon ('book two CL') – so the noun itself never changes shape with the number. English changes the noun instead, which is the switch that has to be learned.

they could achieve tasks that could exceed their physical limitations

they could complete / accomplish tasks that would exceed their physical limitations

In English you achieve a goal, aim, result or ambition, but you complete, carry out or perform a task. (Also: two coulds in one sentence – vary the second to would.)

WhyLithuanian pasiekti covers reach, attain and achieve across a wider range than the English verb, so it over-extends. Lithuanian itself prefers atlikti uzduotis ('to perform tasks') in this sense – so even the first language distinguishes reaching a goal from performing a task; the calque takes the broadest Lithuanian verb and maps it onto the narrowest English one.

it's very hard topic

it's a very hard topic

A first-mention countable noun takes a, even with adjectives stacked in front of it.

WhyPolish has no a/an/the (brak rodzajników); definiteness rides on context, word order and demonstratives, so the English article slot is simply absent in the first language.

it is hard job

it is a hard job

Every singular countable noun needs a determiner.

WhyRussian has no words equivalent to a/an or the, so both directions of error are predicted and both appeared in one session.

his work are outstanding

his work is outstanding

Work in this sense is uncountable, so it takes a singular verb.

for me in that moment one of the most demanding case that I have

for me, at that time, (it was) one of the most demanding cases I had

English distributes 'now/then' across three frames: at the moment (now), at that time / at that point (then), and at that specific point.

WhySpanish en este/ese momento is the ordinary frame for 'now' and 'then', and it transfers whole as *in this/that moment*. English reserves in this moment for the poetic.

policies that was introduced

policies that were introduced

Find the real subject and match the verb to it: a plural subject takes a plural verb, however much material sits in between.

WhySwedish verbs do not inflect for person or number – jag är, du är, de är all use the one form är – so the whole apparatus of English agreement is acquired English-side, and under speed it is the first thing to slip.

bride said as bri-de

bride – BRYD, one syllable

The English final -e is usually silent, and its real job is to reach back and change the vowel before it – here turning the i into a long 'eye' sound.

WhyIn Turkish a final -e is always pronounced, so bride looks as though it must be two syllables. Turkish orthography is transparent: one letter to one sound, ğ being the one exception, and it lengthens the vowel rather than going silent.

there was a sad history, according to the old regime

there was a grim history under the old regime (or: during its rule)

'Under X' marks a period of rule; 'according to X' marks a source. The two are not interchangeable.

Whyза + a ruler's name in the genitive is read temporally in Ukrainian ('under / in the time of'), never as 'according to'. Source-attribution takes a different phrase entirely – за словами режиму ('by the old regime's words'). The first language keeps the two senses apart; the calque collapsed them.

Some people can't go for shopping it is useful for them

Some people can't go shopping, so it is useful for them

Two sentences fused – the run-on habit. Could a full stop sit in the middle, making two complete sentences? If yes, put it there, or add a joining word. And it is go shopping, no for.

on summer

in summer

A season is a long stretch of time, so it takes IN.

WhyCatalan a l'estiu ('at the-summer') sends a across as English on.

the Chinese was taught in my primary school

Chinese was taught in my primary school

Names of languages take no article: Chinese, English, French (and school subjects too). Use the Chinese only for the people (the Chinese are...) or a specific thing (the Chinese you learned).

WhyMandarin has no a/an or the; definiteness rides on word order, measure words and demonstratives (zhè/nà). So English articles are an extra decision every time – and sometimes one slips in where English wants none.

Something THAT, not what: after something, anything or everything the relative word is that. WHAT only means 'the thing which', with no earlier noun.

broccolis I will never eat

broccoli I will never eat

Broccoli is a mass noun: always singular, however much of it there is. Irregulars and mass nouns keep their own shape – sheep, stuff, broccoli, rice, homework.

WhyKorean has a plural marker -deul but it is largely optional, and many count nouns function as collective singulars (haksaeng = student or students). The classic transfer is a missing English -s; this is the mirror image – the plural rule learned and enthusiastically enforced on nouns that refuse it.

close bonds formed through family upbringing provides aged people with empathetic support

close bonds formed through family caregiving provide the elderly with emotional support

The subject is bonds (plural), so provide, not provides. When a phrase sits between the subject and its verb, English still agrees with the real subject, not the nearest noun – mentally delete everything in between and hear the agreement.

even though Polish president told him

even though the Polish president told him

A unique, identifiable office-holder takes the: the president, the prime minister.

WhyWith no article system in the first language, proper-noun-with-the patterns have to be memorised as lists rather than derived from a rule.

if I want to work in office

to work in an office

Every singular countable noun needs a determiner.

WhyWith no article system in the first language, the determiner has to be supplied consciously in English.

the best numbers I see

the best numbers I have seen

A superlative that measures experience up to now takes the present perfect: the best I have ever seen.

WhyThe present perfect is new ground for a Slovak speaker – Slovak marks aspect, not a present perfect – so the form has to be installed rather than transferred.

it depends on how is economy in that moment

it depends on how the economy is at that time

Three repairs share this sentence: the time frame, the article, and the embedded order – embedded questions keep statement order.

WhySpanish keeps the inverted question shape inside subordinate clauses (depende de cómo esté la economía – verb before subject is natural); English reverts to statement order.

products made locally is

products made locally are

Strip the reduced relative and read the bare frame – products ... are, not products ... is. The modifier never changes what the subject is.

WhySwedish är is the same for one product or a thousand, so no number cue reaches the verb from the first language; with a long noun phrase between subject and verb, the default singular slips in.

raised said as ra-i-sed

raised – RAYZD, one syllable

The ai is a single 'ay' sound and the -sed here is just 'zd' – no extra syllable. The -ed ending only adds a whole syllable after a t or d sound.

WhyTurkish spelling is one letter to one sound, so every written letter is expected to be sounded; English collapses clusters that Turkish would pronounce in full.

there seems to be a major progress in

there seems to be major progress in

Progress is uncountable – no a, no plural. Quantify it with much / little / some / significant / major (bare), or a great deal of progress.

WhyUkrainian прогрес is countable, which is where the stray article comes from.

they been destroy oil company

the oil company was destroyed

Every passive carries a BE: was destroyed, has BEEN written, is BEING built – never drop it.

WhyThe dropped auxiliary is the same first-language gap in another costume: Arabic carries the work in the verb's own pattern, so the free-standing English helper has nothing prompting it.

on September

in September

A month is a long stretch, so it takes IN: in September, in 2026, in the 1990s.

WhyCatalan al setembre ('at-the September') is the same crossing again.

Shanghai receive a lot of goods

Shanghai receives a lot of goods

When the subject is he, she, it, or a singular name/thing, the present-tense verb takes -s. A quick check: singular subject + present tense → add -s.

WhyChinese verbs never change their form for the subject (wǒ chī, tā chī – same chī), so this -s is a pure English add-on.

I did a few matches but I never won

I played a few matches but I never won

Games and matches are played. English splits the light-verb territory three ways and each noun has already chosen its verb: PLAY a match, a game, the piano; DO homework, the dishes, your best; MAKE a plan, a mistake, dinner.

WhyKorean hada ('do') is the workhorse verb of the language and happily covers do, make and play – gongbu hada ('study-do'), geim hada ('game-do' = play a game), sukje hada ('homework-do'). English gave that territory to three different verbs.

family members caring for elderly

family members caring for the elderly

'The elderly' = the group as a class, and always takes the.

WhyLithuanian has no words equivalent to a/an or the; specificity is carried by demonstratives, word order and case, so English determiners have to be attached to the phrase rather than derived.

in the Europe

in Europe

No article before a continent: in Europe, in Asia, in Africa.

WhyArticle over-use is the mirror of under-use in a speaker whose first language has no articles at all – once the habit of supplying them starts, it over-applies.

I don't have a spare time to look deeply into it

I don't have spare time to look into it deeply

Time here is uncountable and takes no article – the mirror of the missing-article errors, in the same session.

WhyA no-article first language produces over-supply as well as under-supply: the system is unfamiliar in both directions at once.

specialist for stomach cancer

specialist in stomach cancer

Register preposition: a specialist is a specialist IN a field.

if in that specific moment he doesn't have a competition with another (lawyer?)

if at that specific point he doesn't have competition from another lawyer

Choose the English time frame the meaning needs; competition in this sense is uncountable, and it comes from a rival, not with one.

WhySpanish en ese momento surfaces as *in that moment*; the article is charged separately because *a competition* in English is a contest with a prize.

the drawbacks is a big risk

the drawbacks are a big risk

English keeps number on only one verb – be. So the rule is narrow and memorable: with be, count the subject. Plural subject → are/were; singular → is/was.

WhySwedish verbs never change for number: risken är, riskerna är ('the risk is', 'the risks is') use the same är. There is no instinct to transfer, so the English agreement rule has to be run consciously until it is habit.

BMI said as a word

BMI – BEE-em-EYE, said one letter at a time

An initialism is said letter by letter, each letter wearing its own name. The trap is the last letter: English I on its own is EYE.

WhyTurkish i says 'ee', so the English letter-name EYE has to be learned separately – the same 'eye' sound already met inside bride.

despite of the island's territory

despite the island's territory / in spite of the island's territory

Despite already means 'in spite of' – it never takes of. Store two clean shapes and never cross them: despite + noun; in spite of + noun.

WhyThe Ukrainian unit is незважаючи на + accusative – a fixed pair with no з ('of / from') anywhere inside it, so even a Ukrainian ear would reject a stray 'of'. The English error invents a preposition the source never contained.

I change home design

I would change the home design

Hypothetical? Add would. The conditional result clause is built on it.

WhyThe same missing-helper pattern: the conditional frame was reached for and the would – a free-standing word English requires and Arabic does not – was dropped.

on October or November

in October or November

Months take IN.

my school teach a lot of students

my school teaches a lot of students

A singular subject in the present needs -s on the verb: my school teaches, the port handles.

WhyChinese has nothing for the -s to copy, so it has to be added by habit rather than recalled.

they waited me

they waited for me

English carries this grammar in a preposition sitting between the verb and the person: you do not wait someone, you wait for someone.

WhyIn Korean, 'to wait' is gidarida, and the thing you wait for is marked with an object particle attached to the noun – there is no separate little word standing between the verb and its object. The grammar lives on the noun, not in the space before it, so the English for has no Korean counterpart to copy.

shared upbringing / family upbringing

shared caregiving / the time spent caring for them

Upbringing is how a child is raised – it cannot describe adults caring for their parents. Used twice, it is the single clearest word slip in the script.

there are people on the south that work in coal mines

people in the south who work in coal mines

Regions take in – in the south, in the north – and who is cleaner than that for people.

WhyPolish folds many English prepositions into case endings, so the preposition is chosen anew each time: na południu ('in the south', locative) pulls toward on the south.

a dream to visit UK and Scotland

a dream of visiting the UK and Scotland

A country or organisation whose name contains a common noun takes THE; a plain name does not. That is why one half of the sentence needs THE and the other needs nothing.

WhyRussian treats the two names identically, and quite reasonably – they are both simply places, and Russian marks no definiteness anywhere. English treats them differently for a reason that has nothing to do with the countries: United Kingdom contains the common noun kingdom, and Scotland does not.

opportunity for improve

opportunity to improve

Opportunity takes the to-infinitive, not for plus a bare verb.

one of the most demanding case

one of the most demanding cases

One of the + superlative always takes a plural noun: the phrase means 'one member of the set of demanding cases', and the set is plural.

WhySpanish uno de los casos más exigentes is itself plural, so this is not a direct calque but a trap that catches speakers of several unrelated first languages.

the social media has also brought a lot of positive change

social media has also brought a lot of positive change

When you talk about something in general – the whole category, not one specific instance – English uses no article: social media is powerful, encryption matters, technology moves fast. Add the only when you mean a particular one both of us can identify.

WhySwedish glues its definite article onto the end of the noun (bil → bilen) and reaches for the definite far more readily with generics, so an extra English the slips in.

when I came the hospital

when I came to the hospital

Motion towards a place needs TO. Move, go, come, travel and return all take TO before a destination.

WhyTurkish carries this on the noun as the dative suffix -e/-a: hastane-ye geldim, literally 'hospital-to I-came'. The relation lives inside the word, so the English preposition is easy to leave out.

it reminds a situation of the last century

it is reminiscent of a situation in the last century

English remind will not take a bare object idea: it needs reminds me of, or the adjective phrase is reminiscent of.

Whyнагадує ситуацію (nahaduye sytuatsiyu) = 'reminds [a]-situation' – verb + bare accusative object, no me, no of. Ukrainian нагадувати normally takes a dative experiencer too (нагадує мені, 'reminds me'), so even the source prefers a me; English simply makes it obligatory and adds of.

online shopping make the life faster and easier

online shopping makes life faster and easier

Third-person -s; and life in general takes no the.

on the next class

in the next class

A class is a stretch of time, so it takes IN.

tiniest people in my family

the tiniest people in my family

The -est ending travels with the in the attributive slot: the tiniest, the tallest, the best – because a superlative points to one unique top of the group, and the is how English marks it. (A possessive can take the article's place: my tallest cousin.)

WhyChinese has no articles and marks the superlative with just zuì ('most'): zuì xiǎo ('most small' = 'the smallest'). So the the is added English-side.

I got along my neighbours

I got along with my neighbours

Get along with is a fixed unit – the preposition belongs to the verb and is learned with it, not chosen separately.

WhyKorean attaches grammar to nouns with particles rather than with free-standing prepositions, so the English preposition either goes missing or comes out wrong.

A short-sighted policy, may deplete natural resources, driven by industrial practices do not justify the harm.

A short-sighted policy may deplete natural resources. The benefits, driven by industrial practices, do not justify the harm.

Two faults in one line: a single comma between subject and verb, and an opened parenthetical never closed. Commas come in pairs or not at all.

it's used when someone is putting an argument to the topic

it's used when someone brings up something irrelevant – English: what's that got to do with anything?

Idioms rarely translate word-for-word – you swap the whole phrase, not the words.

WhyCo ma piernik do wiatraka? is a vivid, ordinary Polish idiom, but the image (gingerbread, windmill) is Polish-specific, so explaining its function word-by-word produces something no English speaker says.

I need to enter European Union

I need to enter the European Union

An organisation whose name contains a common noun – Union, Kingdom, States, Republic, Emirates – takes THE.

WhyRussian marks no definiteness on names at all, so мечта посетить ... leaves every proper noun bare.

better tolerated for most patients

better tolerated by most patients

The passive names its agent with by: tolerated by patients (or in patients, for the setting).

to take advance of that networking

to take advantage of that networking

Take advantage of is a fixed unit and cannot be broken up or half-translated.

WhySpanish aprovechar is a single verb; English expresses it as a light-verb phrase, so the noun has to be recalled exactly.

you can try to not get eaten alive

you can try not to get eaten alive

The negative goes in front of the infinitive marker: not to get, not to be, not to worry. So: try not to get eaten alive, I decided not to reply, he promised not to tell.

WhySwedish puts the negation after the marker – att inte bli uppäten is, word for word, 'to not get eaten'. The whole family behaves the same way: att inte svara → not to reply; att inte berätta → not to tell.

I would move London

I would move to London

The same motion-to rule: a destination takes TO after move, go, come, travel, return.

WhyTurkish marks 'motion towards' with the dative suffix -e/-a attached to the noun – Londra'ya – so the relation has already been expressed and the separate English word has nothing to prompt it.

they are planning to make a full lock down

to impose (or enforce) a full lockdown

The do/make light verb is too light for this noun: English imposes or enforces a lockdown. (And lockdown is one word as a noun.)

Whyзробити локдаун (zrobyty lokdaun) = 'to do/make [a] lockdown' – the light verb зробити carries the action. Ukrainian also reaches for heavier verbs here – запровадити ('introduce/impose') – so the light зробити is the casual choice the source itself upgrades in formal register.

online shopping have many benefits

online shopping has many benefits

Shopping is singular, so the verb is has.

to go by foot

to go on foot

On foot is the exception in a family that otherwise takes by: by car, by bus, by train.

we are very angry

we were very angry

A finished event takes the past tense: were is the past of are. Pair a past time-word with the past verb – then / that day + were.

WhyChinese verbs don't change for tense at all – wǒmen kàn is 'we see', 'we saw' or 'we will see', with time shown by context or a particle like le for a completed event. So the past form is a pure English-side habit.

we talked each other on translator

we talked to each other through a translator

You talk to someone, and you talk through a translator – the means takes through, not on.

WhyKorean particles do not map one-to-one onto English prepositions, so both the missing to and the wrong on come from the same source: there is no Korean form to translate them from.

The long term effects to the environment are well documented, and expenditure for transport keeps rising.

The long-term effects on the environment are well documented, and expenditure on transport keeps rising.

Compound adjectives before a noun take a hyphen. Effects land on something; expenditure is on something.

it was already beginning of December

it was already the beginning of December

Fixed time expressions take the: the beginning of December, the end of the month.

WhyPolish has no a/an/the; definiteness is carried by demonstratives, word order and case, so at C2 the residue lives in first-mention countables and fixed time expressions.

enter European Union from the ground

enter the European Union by land (or overland, or by road)

The travel set is fixed: by land, by sea, by air, by road, by rail – all with BY and no article. From the ground in English suggests you are digging.

WhyПо земле is exactly 'by land', and Russian is entirely consistent – по земле, по морю, по воздуху: one preposition for every medium. English is the awkward one, fixing on BY and dropping the article; there is nothing to derive, so the set must simply be stored.

hear your opinion and if this could be useful

hear your opinion on whether this could be useful

Opinion takes on, and an indirect yes/no question takes whether, not if, after a preposition.

a country that give you

a country that gives you

In a relative clause the verb agrees with the noun the clause describes.

WhySpanish agreement is rich and never mismatches; the English -s is simply so meaning-light that it falls off under speed, where the Spanish ending never would.

it's divided in multiple parts

it's divided into multiple parts

When something is split up so that it becomes several things, English uses into – into carries motion or result, one thing turning into many. The whole family works this way: divide into, split into, break into, cut into, separate into, translate into. Compare in, which is static: the data is in the file, the key is in the header.

WhySwedish uses i here (delas i flera delar), and i is the everyday translation of in – so in comes out automatically. It is a faithful translation of a fixed unit that English simply pairs differently.

SIG-nif-i-cant

significant – sig-NIF-i-cant

The stress falls on the second syllable, not the first, and the ending is '-kant', not '-kaant'.

WhyTurkish stress is broadly regular and usually falls on the final syllable, shifting predictably as suffixes are added. English stress is lexical and unpredictable, so it has to be stored word by word.

the pipeline which is giving the gas for the city

the pipeline which supplies the gas for the city

Where a system provides a commodity, English selects supply or provide, not the light verb give.

WhyA Slavic light-verb collocation carried whole: the syntax is native English but the verb-and-noun pairing comes straight from the source.

In the end, online shopping has many benefits

In conclusion, online shopping has many benefits

In the end means 'finally, after a long time'. The essay closer is In conclusion.

do some meetings on my desk

meetings at my desk

A desk is a point you work at, not a surface you are on. Objects rest on it – the papers on my desk – but a person, and a meeting, are at it.

we see

we saw

A past event needs the past verb – saw is the irregular past of see.

WhyWhere English marks past, Chinese often marks completion with le: wǒmen kàn le ('we saw', the seeing is done). A useful bridge: if you'd use le in Chinese, use the past form in English.

my family is together in here

my family is together here

Here already means 'at this place' – it takes no preposition. Same for there and home: come here, go there, go home.

I'd argue that travelers should bear the cost.

I would argue that travellers should bear the cost.

No contractions in an Academic essay, and the British spelling doubles the l: travellers, modelling, labelled.

we had English client

we had an English client

First-mention countable takes a/an – an English client.

WhyWith no article system to copy, the article has to be added consciously; at C2 these are best drilled as memorised pairs rather than rules.

complained regarding the facilities

complained about the facilities

One complains ABOUT something – regarding is not the partner word here.

WhyVerbs choose their own preposition, and Russian's case system often lends the wrong one; learn the preposition as a pair with the verb.

the best numbers which I have seen in last years

the best numbers I have seen in recent years

In recent years is the fixed phrase; and the relative pronoun can simply be dropped when it is the object.

people who works

people who work

The relative clause takes the number of its antecedent, and it flips both ways: people who work, but one of them works.

WhySpanish gente que treballa/trabaja marks the person on the ending; English hangs the whole distinction on one small -s.

Yesterday discovered I a strange process running on port 8080

Yesterday I discovered a strange process running on port 8080

English does not invert in declaratives – after a fronted adverbial the subject still stays before the verb.

WhySwedish, like German, is a V2 language: the finite verb sits in second position, so a fronted adverbial pushes the subject after the verb (Igår hittade jag = 'Yesterday found I').

oo-TER-us

uterus – YOO-ter-us

Three syllables, starting with 'YOO' as in 'you' – the English u is not the Turkish u.

WhyTurkish spelling is transparent, so the written vowel is expected to give its own sound; English vowels routinely say something the spelling does not show.

a cracking unit

a single point of failure / the linchpin / the weak link

Where the source renders a structural-weakness idea literally, English already has a fixed metaphor – pick the register the text wants.

WhyA literal rendering of вузол (vuzol, 'node/knot') or слабка ланка (slabka lanka, 'weak link'). Ukrainian has its own fixed metaphor – слабка ланка – so the source would not say cracking unit either; the calque is an on-the-fly coinage, not a real source idiom.

easier and faster than traditional shopping

more convenient than visiting physical shops

A band-lifting swap: the same phrase used three times in one essay stops being lexical resource and starts being repetition.

we try to listen our users

we try to listen to our users

Listen always takes TO before its object.

WhyCatalan escoltar takes its object directly with no preposition, so English's compulsory to goes missing. There is no logic to reason out; the pair is stored whole, like vocabulary.

computer games practice your brain

computer games train / exercise your brain

You train or exercise your brain – you practise a skill, like the piano.

I interested in UK property

I'm interested in UK property

English needs the verb to be before an adjective: I am interested, she is tired.

WhyIn Korean the 'be' relationship can be left implied, and an adjective behaves like a verb and can be the whole predicate – so no separate copula is needed, and it goes missing in English.

it allowed me to equip with knowledge about the traditions

it allowed me to equip myself with knowledge of the traditions

Equip needs an object; when the object is you, English spells it out: equip myself, familiarise myself, immerse myself, avail myself. (And knowledge of, rather than about.)

WhyLithuanian apsirupinti ('to equip oneself', written apsirūpinti) carries -si ('oneself') inside the word. Because the suffix has already said oneself, the English myself feels like a repetition and quietly disappears. The instinct is linguistically correct; it is simply calibrated to the wrong language.

it was company connected with transportation

it was a company connected with transport

First-mention countable takes a – a company. (British English: transport, not transportation.)

WhyPolish carries definiteness by demonstratives, word order and case, so the English article slot arrives empty.

starts from checking

starts with / by checking

Something starts WITH or BY doing – not from.

WhyVerbs choose their own preposition, and the Russian case system lends the wrong one.

Read your paragraph backwards

After writing, read your own paragraph backwards, sentence by sentence, checking only the verb against its subject. Reading in reverse strips away the meaning, so the agreement stands out on its own.

• every patient has
• every second person responds
• his work is outstanding

CautionThis is a proofreading habit for free production specifically – agreement is usually automatic in controlled work and only slips when a newer structure takes the foreground.

someone who know

someone who knows

Someone, anyone and everyone are grammatically singular.

Last night was a big breach in our test network

Last night there was a big breach in our test network

English uses it for weather, time and states (it is late) and there for existence (there is a breach).

WhySwedish det serves as both the dummy it and the existential there (det regnar 'it is raining'; det finns ett problem 'there is a problem'). English splits them.

WOO-men

women – WIM-in (singular woman = WUM-an)

The plural sounds nothing like its spelling: women is WIM-in, while the singular woman is WUM-an. The spelling barely shows the difference; the sound carries it.

WhyIn a transparent orthography the written o would be read as an o. English writes women and says WIM-in, so the pair has to be learned by ear.

we were not hundred percent certain

we were not a hundred per cent certain

A hundred takes the indefinite article.

WhyUkrainian has no articles, so English supplies them fresh – and in both directions.

The find-the-verb rule

Before any English sentence leaves you, find the verb. If there isn't one, it's be. Every passive keeps its be, every hypothetical adds would, and every negative adds doesn't.

• they are superstitious
• the oil company was destroyed
• the report has been written
• a new metro line is being built
• my city doesn't have a big public library

CautionThe bare form be is never a tense in its own right: when I am alone, never when I be.

how many perfumes we have seen on the perfume shop

how many perfumes we have seen in the perfume shop

English uses IN for the interior of a place you can walk into (in the shop, in the store, in the museum) and ON only for surfaces.

WhyCatalan a la botiga and Spanish en la tienda both use a single preposition covering English in / at / on, so the choice has to be made on the English side every time.

dreamful

dreamlike / magical

English is fussy about which endings attach where: -ful gives hopeful and colourful, but there is no dreamful. When you coin a clever word, check it exists.

WhyChinese builds vivid words by joining pieces (mènghuàn, 'dream-fantasy'), so inventing dreamful is a very natural move – it just isn't an English word.

korean people is

Korean people are

People is a plural noun: people are, people have, people work.

WhyKorean verbs do not change for person or number, and nouns like people are treated as collective singulars – so there is nothing in the first language to copy English agreement from. It is built entirely English-side.

can help strengthen closer bonds

can help build closer bonds

Strengthen closer doubles up – pick one: strengthen bonds, or build closer bonds.

we were doing some changes there

we were making some changes

You make changes, a decision, a mistake; you do business, research, homework.

WhyRobiliśmy zmiany – Polish robić is both DO and MAKE, so 'doing changes' is the literal read; English splits the two verbs and changes belongs to MAKE.

the room 12

room 12

A number-label takes no article at all.

WhyRussian carries no articles, so English asks a question the ear is not used to.

the best result I have ever present

the best result I have ever presented

The perfect takes the participle: present becomes presented. A spelling-level fix, not a gap in the structure.

a lawyer who specialise

a lawyer who specialises

A singular antecedent takes the singular verb inside the relative clause.

the attacker's behaviour was almost unhuman in its patience

the attacker's behaviour was almost inhuman in its patience

English negative prefixes are lexically fixed – some words take un-, others in-; check the English word rather than defaulting.

WhySwedish forms the negative with a single prefix o- (omänsklig), which does not map one-to-one onto English un-/in-, so calquing o- as un- misfires.

I watch to her observations

I watch her observations

Watch takes a direct object with no preposition; listen takes TO. The pair splits in English where it does not split in Turkish.

WhyTurkish governs many objects through the accusative directly: seyretmek ('watch') and dinlemek ('listen') both take a direct object, so English's decision to give one of them a preposition and not the other is unpredictable from the first language. The learner's file shows errors in both directions – listen the radio and watch to the movie.

the capital of Andalusia region

the capital of the Andalusia region

A named region built with the common noun region takes the: the Andalusia region, the Tyrol region.

WhyUkrainian has no article system, so the definite article on a named region has to be supplied fresh in English.

One of the + superlative + plural

The frame 'one of the' is always followed by a plural noun, however singular the thing you end up describing.

• one of the oldest universities
• one of the best players

CautionThe verb still agrees with one, not with the plural noun: one of the arbitrators comes, not come.

I buy them through internet

I bought them on the internet

English fixes on ON: on the internet, on the phone – or simply online, which sidesteps the problem entirely.

WhyCatalan per internet and Spanish por internet both give through/by, and neither takes an article. Catalan is perfectly consistent here – per internet, per telèfon, per correu – and English is the inconsistent one: on the internet, on the phone, by post.

I will get a good English

I will get good English

English (the language) is uncountable, so it takes no a: good English, my English is improving.

WhyChinese has no a or the: wǒ de Yīngyǔ hěn hǎo is 'my English very good' – no article anywhere. And Yīngyǔ is a whole-mass idea you would never count with a, so a English sounds wrong in Chinese too.

Seoul more influential

Seoul is more influential

English requires be before an adjective: the city is influential, the population is small.

WhyIn Korean an adjective behaves like a verb and can be the whole predicate, so no separate be is needed – the equivalent of 'Seoul influential-is' is one word. In English the be is obligatory and has to be supplied.

ensuring stability during economical hardships

ensuring stability during economic hardship

Economic = to do with the economy; economical = cheap, thrifty. A classic false friend.

connected with manufacture of cotton

connected with the manufacture of cotton

A process or activity specified by an of-phrase takes the: the manufacture of cotton, the production of steel – the of-phrase makes it definite.

WhyPolish has no a/an/the; definiteness is carried by context, word order and demonstratives, so shared-reference definites have to be supplied consciously in English.

Please take a good care of them.

Please take good care of them.

Care is uncountable, so no a.

WhyRussian carries no articles, so the English determiner is supplied by feel – in both directions.

I have been working ... for three years

CreditedForm, span and for all correct, in a form that is new ground for this first language – the present perfect continuous has no direct counterpart in a language that marks aspect instead. It was produced unprompted, in the stage that did not ask for it, which is what makes it evidence of absorption rather than of following instructions.

everybody have

everybody has

Everybody is singular however many people it names.

Yesterday found we a more bigger gap in the perimeter than expected

Yesterday we found a bigger gap in the perimeter than expected

Never double the comparative: bigger, not 'more bigger'; better, not 'more better'. Short adjectives take -er, long ones take more – never both.

WhyThe word order in the same sentence is the Swedish V2 rule surfacing: the finite verb must sit second, so a fronted adverbial inverts the subject (Förra veckan lagade vi).

a change would not have been missed

the change would not have been missed

A specific, identifiable thing already under discussion takes the, not a.

WhyTurkish has no articles at all, so both the presence and the choice of an English article are additions made entirely on the English side – which is why the pattern drops in both directions.

they speculate on those news

speculate about that news

Speculate takes about or on – both are standard – but news is uncountable: that news, never those news.

WhyUkrainian folds relations into case endings, so the English preposition and the verb's complement pattern have to be chosen anew each time. Store the high-frequency pairs as fixed units.

One subject, one verb, one full stop

Check every sentence three ways: the subject appears once (not shopping it...); there is a full verb (no action means is / are); and the sentence ends when the idea ends.

• Online shopping has grown rapidly
• online shopping is one reason many shops have closed
• Some people can't go shopping, so it is useful for them

CautionOne habit covers three faults – the missing is, the doubled subject and the run-on – which is why it is worth a whole band on accuracy on its own.

We celebrate a lot on Christmas.

We celebrate a lot at Christmas.

At Christmas for the holiday period; on Christmas Day for the specific day.

WhyCatalan and Spanish en Nadal / en Navidad uses one preposition where English chooses between at and on according to whether you mean the period or the day.

the table tennis are popular

table tennis is popular

A sport named in general takes no the and counts as one thing: table tennis is popular, football is fun.

Whypīngpāngqiú hěn shòu huānyíng is 'table-tennis very receive-welcome'. Chinese would never add the, never add -s and never change the verb for number – pīngpāngqiú is simply the topic.

her mum have

her mum has

A third-person singular subject takes the -s form: her mum has, he works, it matters.

WhyKorean verbs never change for person or number: jeo-neun gayo, geu-neun gayo ('I go', 'he goes') use the same gayo. English agreement is therefore acquired entirely on the English side.

unburdens the elderly from

relieves the elderly of / frees the elderly from

The verb selects the preposition: relieve someone OF a burden, free someone FROM it.

the beginning of 19th century

the beginning of the 19th century

Centuries always take the: the 19th century, the 1800s, the Middle Ages.

WhyWith no article system in the first language, conventionalised definites like centuries and named eras have to be memorised rather than derived.

when I saw the familiar face

when I saw a familiar face

First mention of a countable noun takes a/an, even when the thing is familiar to the speaker.

WhyWith no article system in the first language, the choice between first-mention a and already-known the has to be made consciously.

Every second person is now responding

CreditedOne of the two transformations that trip most learners at this stage – the plural people pulled back to the singular person that every requires, with the verb following it. The recognition-to-repair jump is what the exercise was actually testing.

if there are a problem

if there is a problem

THERE agrees with what follows it: there is a problem, there are problems.

you need to build it secure from the ground up

you need to build it securely from the ground up

To describe how you do something, English uses the -ly adverb: build it securely, test it thoroughly, code it carefully. Secure is the adjective – it describes a thing (a secure system). If you'd rather keep secure, use the infinitive: build it to be secure.

WhySwedish forms the manner adverb by adding -t to the adjective – säker ('secure') → säkert ('securely'), noggrann → noggrant ('carefully'). Because the Swedish -t is a quiet, single letter, it's easy to land on the bare adjective in English instead of the adverb.

If it continues, you will see a doctor.

If it continues, you should see a doctor.

will predicts; should advises. In clinical writing the difference is not stylistic – it is the difference between a forecast and a recommendation.

they were prohibited to use those tools on the Russian territory

prohibited from using those tools in Russian territory

Prohibited takes from + -ing, never to + infinitive.

WhyUkrainian encodes the relation in a case ending, so the English preposition and complement pattern are chosen fresh – and often wrongly.

Both halves of the same story – the broken third conditional

Two Arabic-L1 students, marked weeks apart, produced the two opposite halves of the same broken machine. The first built the if-clause perfectly – If I had travelled – HAD plus past participle, exactly as taught, and then reached for WOULD in the result clause and stopped one word short: would learn instead of would have learned. The second reached correctly for the conditional frame and dropped the other piece entirely: I change home design, where the would never arrived at all. One student built the entrance and left the engine unfinished; the other built the engine and forgot the ignition. The shared cause sits in the first language. Arabic marks the unreal past once, at the front door – law safartu, la-ta'allamtu ('if I-travelled, then-I-learned'): the particle law plus a perfect verb in each clause, and the counterfactual meaning is complete. English is less efficient and demands special machinery in both clauses, so an Arabic speaker who has satisfied the meaning early has no internal prompt to keep building. Between the two of them the Department has now seen both halves of the same story, which is why the drill installs WOULD + HAVE + V3 as one breath rather than as three separate words.

Seen inArabic

On the future, everyone will need English.

In the future, everyone will need English.

A period of time takes IN: in the future, in the morning, in the 21st century.

WhySpanish en el futuro uses the single preposition en, which the learner splits at random between English in and on because nothing in the first language distinguishes them.

if I mix blue and yellow paint it be green

if I mix blue and yellow paint, it is green

English bends be to fit its subject and time – am / is / are; here, it → is. Everything else in the zero conditional was already right.

WhyIn Chinese the 'be' word shì has one form forever – it is never bent to match its subject. So turning be into is is a purely English step.

there are many countries helps south Korea

there were many countries that helped South Korea

A relative clause needs its pronoun (that), a plural subject needs a plural verb, and a past event keeps the past tense throughout.

WhyKorean verbs do not mark person or number, so agreement is English-side work; and Korean relative clauses carry no relative pronoun at all, so the that has to be supplied.

empathetic support

emotional support

Empathetic describes a person who feels with you; the support itself is emotional.

it comes in pair

they come in pairs

The fixed phrase is in pairs – always plural, like in twos, in groups, in numbers.

WhyEnglish fixes some phrases in the plural regardless of a singular idea; Polish does not, so this is an English-surface tidy-up rather than a conceptual gap.

we did some BBQ

we had a BBQ

English has a BBQ, has a party – the light verb is have, not do.

WhyRussian делать (delat') covers both do and make, so it is the default reach for any event noun; English selects have here.

that process define

that process defines

A singular subject takes the -s form.

The analyst which found the breach is brilliant

The analyst who found the breach is brilliant

who for people, which for things, that for either – but that only in defining clauses.

WhySwedish uses som as an all-purpose relative pronoun covering who, which and that at once (mannen som..., datorn som...), so English forces a live choice where Swedish never made one.

Her dilatation was higher than at the last check.

Her dilatation was greater than at the last check.

The grammar was never wrong; the lexis was. Higher works for blood pressure and temperature, not for dilatation (greater) or pain (worse, more severe).

there some people on top positions

there are some people in top positions

English requires the copula in existential and predicate statements: there are, he is.

WhyUkrainian drops the present-tense copula (він студент, 'he student' = 'he is a student'), which surfaces as a missing is/are under speed.

it's a school that teaches only Arabic

it's a school that only teaches Arabic

Honesty first: the original is grammatical, and in careful writing it even carries a precise emphasis. But the native rhythm puts ONLY before the verb in everyday speech: only teaches Arabic, only eats fish, only works weekends. Filed as a naturalness note, not an offence.

They stay on winter in the country.

They stay in the country in winter.

Seasons are periods, so they take IN: in winter, in summer.

WhySpanish en invierno – again the single en, mapped onto the wrong English member of the trio.

the scenery there are beautiful

the scenery there is beautiful

Scenery is uncountable – one of that awkward English group that feels plural because it describes many things but behaves as one: scenery, furniture, luggage, information, advice, weather, traffic. Always a singular verb.

WhyMandarin verbs never change for the subject and adjectival predicates often take no copula at all – tā hěn gāo is 'he very tall', a complete sentence with no 'is' in it.

very old city

a very old city

A singular, first-mention, countable noun takes a: a very old city, a modern city.

WhyKorean has no articles at all, so first-mention count nouns lose their a – there is no equivalent form in the first language to prompt it.

regain a sense of joy and unity

recover a sense of purpose and belonging

Precision beats warmth: purpose and belonging are the words the argument actually needs.

it's very underestimated country

it's a very underestimated country

A first-mention singular countable noun takes a/an, however many adjectives come between.

WhyPolish has no articles, so first-mention singular countables lose their a – specificity in Polish rides on demonstratives, word order and case instead.

travelled around the Europe

travelled around Europe

No the on continents and most countries.

WhyThe Russian no-article system pushes and pulls at once: it drops articles where English needs them and adds them where English wants none.

in this moment it's a curious thing

at the moment, it's a curious thing

English time reference is at the moment for the present and at that time / at that point for the past.

WhyEn este momento is the natural Spanish frame for 'now' and transfers whole as *in this moment*; by this session it had run to eight tokens and crossed from habit into reflex.

My laptop that is brand new was still infected

My laptop, which is brand new, was still infected

A non-defining clause takes a pair of commas and must use who/which – never that. Test it by deleting the clause: if you still know which one is meant, it is non-defining.

WhySwedish doesn't lean on the comma to separate defining from non-defining the way English does; the difference is carried more by intonation and context. In English the comma is the grammar.

I don't worried about the result.

I was not worried about the result.

Negate be with not, never with do. The Turkish değil sits after the adjective and tempts an auxiliary that English does not want here.

flooded by water from the reservoir

flooded with water from the reservoir

Flooded WITH the substance, flooded BY the agent or event. The water is the substance.

WhyUkrainian has no a/an or the; specificity is carried by demonstratives (цей, той), word order and context, so the article on a named body of water has to be supplied fresh.

My first school was teaching only religion and maths

my first school only taught religion and maths

Habitual past takes the past simple, not the past continuous – and ONLY steps before the verb.

They travel on June.

They travel in June.

Months are periods: in June. Only days take ON.

WhySpanish en junio: one preposition for month, day and season, where English divides them by size.

its bring a lot fun to us

it brings a lot of fun to us

When the subject is one thing (it, she, the school), the present verb takes -s. Also its means 'belonging to it'; the word you wanted is it.

WhyMandarin verbs don't change shape (chī is 'eat' in every tense and for every person), so the third-person -s is the layer that slips when your attention is on the bigger idea.

before I came to here

before I came here

Here and there already mean 'to this place' and 'to that place', so adding to doubles up: came here, went there.

WhyKorean postpositions map unevenly onto English prepositions – one particle such as -e can be 'to' or 'at' – which produces both missing prepositions and doubled ones.

The hidden-plural list

A handful of English plurals carry no -s and therefore look singular. They are plural anyway, and they take are / do / have / receive.

• people
• children
• men
• women
• police
• staff

CautionThis is not a rule that can be derived, which is why it is a memorised list rather than a principle – and because people is unavoidable in essays about society, it is the single highest-frequency accuracy item at this level.

I think language barrier would be very hard

I think the language barrier would be very hard

An identifiable, shared-reference noun takes the – the one we are both thinking of.

WhyWith no article system in the first language, the definite article on shared reference is the last and most persistent slot to fill.

in big club

in a big club

First mention, countable, singular – it needs its a.

WhyThe same no-article first language producing the opposite error in the same set of sheets.

in that moment of my life

at that time in my life

Past time reference takes at that time or at that point.

WhyEn ese momento carried across intact; English reserves in that moment for poetic or emotional use.

it costed us money

it cost us money

Cost is invariant in this sense: cost / cost / cost – no -ed. (There is a rare costed in accountancy – 'to calculate the cost of' – but not for what something cost you.)

WhyThe pull toward costed is natural from Swedish, where the equivalent kosta takes a regular past kostade; the English -ed default is then applied to a verb that refuses it.

She had a birth at 39 weeks and reported stomach pain.

She had a spontaneous vaginal delivery at 39 weeks and reported abdominal pain.

Both were grammatical and both were wrong for the register. OET marks the profession's own words, not the general ones.

in Ukrainian system it is called

in the Ukrainian system

A specific system already identified by its modifier takes the.

WhyThe first language has no article system, so a specific identifiable noun surfaces bare.

I not learn any English

I didn't learn any English

The past negative needs DID: the helper carries the negative and the main verb stays in its base form.

I would go there through plane.

I would go there by plane.

Mode of transport takes by plus a bare noun, with no article.

WhySpanish por avion (por avión) – por is being translated as through, when the English transport frame is by.

they fight with the Japanese army in world war two

they fought against the Japanese army

Finished events take the past form – fought. And when two sides oppose each other English says fought against; fight with can mean 'fight alongside'.

WhyMandarin leaves the verb unchanged and lets a time word carry the tense, so English's endings are the layer to watch.

many student from different country

many students from different countries

After many / several / various / different, and after numerals, the noun must be plural.

WhyKorean leaves number off the noun: haksaeng is 'student' or 'students' with no change of form, so the English -s has no counterpart to prompt it.

Learn collocation teams noun-first

English pairs particular verbs with particular nouns, and the pairing belongs to the noun. Decide the noun, then take the verb that belongs to it.

• achieve a goal / an aim / a result
• complete a task / a course / a form
• carry out research / a study / an instruction
• meet a target / a deadline / a requirement

CautionFor exam Lexical Resource these pairings earn more than rare vocabulary does – a common verb used exactly outscores an uncommon one used loosely.

going everywhere by foot

going everywhere on foot

English goes on foot – the one exception to the by car / by bus / by train pattern.

WhyPolish uses pieszo or na piechotę, neither of which supplies the English preposition, so the by-pattern generalises across.

every individual share

every individual shares

Every + singular noun takes a singular verb, always.

WhyRussian marks person and number richly on the verb, so an agreement slip is never a gap in the grammar – it is the English third-person -s, which carries almost no meaning, dropping first when attention is on the content of the argument.

thousand of cameras

thousands of cameras

Vague large numbers take the plural plus of: thousands of, millions of.

WhySpanish miles de maps to thousands of, but veinte millones maps to twenty million – singular, no of. The partitive de does not divide the same way.

barely no requirement at all

barely any requirement at all

Once you've used a negative-ish word like barely, hardly or scarcely, the next word must be any, not no. If you want no, drop the first negative: almost no requirements. One negative per idea.

WhySwedish lets a negative word stack with another negative: knappt inga krav alls ('barely no requirements at all') is perfectly good Swedish. English refuses the stack, so knappt inga maps to barely any, not barely no.

I have been working in the big hospital since 2017. I prefered the nursing because I like helping people.

I have been working in a large hospital since 2017. I chose nursing because I like helping people.

First mention of the hospital → a. A whole field – nursing, dentistry, physiotherapy – takes no article at all.

speak in a rather sophisticated language

speak rather sophisticated language / in a rather sophisticated way

Language in the sense of register is uncountable and takes no article; if you want the article, recast to in a sophisticated way.

WhyThe same no-article system produces over-use as well as under-use: with nothing in the first language to mark definiteness, English articles get supplied by feel rather than rule.

had not showed

had not shown

The third form of SHOW is SHOWN – the perfect takes the participle, not the past simple.

The towns are all at the north.

The towns are all in the north.

A region is an area, so it takes IN: in the north, in the mountains.

WhySpanish al norte translates the a as at, when English treats a compass region as an area rather than a point.

our school encourage us to draw some painting

our school encourages us

One thing → -s: our school encourages.

many trees was in the village

many trees were in the village

A plural subject takes a plural verb: are, were, have, do. Existential there was is singular; there were is plural.

WhyKorean uses one flat verb whether there is one tree or a thousand – namu-ga manh-ass-eoyo does not change form for number – so the English verb has to be re-marked deliberately.

Error-free and idea-free

Accuracy alone tops out at around band six. A script with no errors in it is not automatically a strong script – it may simply be a cautious one: short sentences, safe vocabulary, nothing attempted that could go wrong. The first question to ask of a clean sheet is not 'what did they get right?' but 'what did they try?'

• running the full conditional range, including the mixed type, is a Grammatical Range marker and the difference between a six and a seven
• attempting equip myself with and getting the frame slightly wrong is evidence of reach, not a fault to be avoided

CautionThe corollary for the student: once there is very little error left to reduce, further marks come from range, not from further accuracy. A clean sheet is a floor, not a ceiling – this is the correct moment to become slightly more ambitious than feels comfortable.

it's good moment in life to travel

it's a good moment

First-mention countable singulars take a – a good moment, a family, a free evening.

WhyPolish has no articles at all, so there is no habit to lean on; at C2 the fix is memory, not rule – collect the fixed phrases and drill them as chunks.

find best places

find the best places

An attributive superlative is definite: the best, the most popular, the largest – unless a possessive already fills the slot (my best places).

WhyRussian has no a/an or the; specificity rides on demonstratives (этот / тот), word order and case, so the article slot is empty by default. Russian найти лучшие места ('find best places') is complete without any determiner, so nothing in the first language flags the missing English THE.

20 millions

20 million

After a number, million stays singular and takes no of.

WhySpanish veinte millones carries the plural on the numeral itself; English does not.

If a packet would be lost, the client resends it

If a packet is lost, the client resends it

Would never enters the if-clause. This is a first conditional – a real, repeatable situation – so the if-clause takes the present.

WhySwedish keeps skulle out of the om-clause exactly as English keeps would out of the if-clause, so this rule is normally inherited rather than learned by Swedish speakers.

par-tic-ly

particularly – par-TIC-u-lar-ly

Five syllables, with the beat on TIC. Do not collapse the middle of the word.

I had few information

I had little information

Information is uncountable, so the quantifier is little, not few – few is for countables (few details).

WhySeveral English uncountables have countable Ukrainian counterparts, so a plural or a count quantifier slips in.

I would never discover

I would never have discovered

The result clause of an unreal past always carries the full stack – WOULD + HAVE + third form.

The temperature in my watch says 30 degrees.

The temperature on my watch says 30 degrees.

A display is a surface, so it takes ON: on my watch, on the screen.

WhySpanish en el reloj / en la pantalla – the same en again, this time landing on in where English needs the surface preposition on.

there are some children playground

a children's playground

A playground for children is a children's playground – the possessive does the work, and the noun phrase still needs its article.

WhyMandarin doesn't mark plural on the noun, so this is a decision English adds.

at some locations there is no people

at some polling stations there were no voters

There is is singular and there were is plural – and the whole sentence must sit in the tense the story is in.

WhyKorean marks neither number on the noun nor agreement on the verb, so both halves of the existential have to be built English-side.

Getting into a conditional without the word 'if'

The conditional does not need if. Drop it and front the auxiliary, or use one of the conjunctions and prepositions that carry the same meaning – each buys grammatical range at no extra risk.

• Had they invested earlier, the crisis would have been avoided
• Were the policy extended, more families would benefit
• Should the scheme fail, the government has a contingency
• Unless governments act soon, the problem will worsen
• Provided that funding continues, the programme can be extended
• But for state support, many would struggle
• Without insurance, treatment is expensive

CautionUnless already means if not – never negate it twice. And after Should fronted, there is no to: Should the scheme fail, not Should the scheme to fail.

if you have the family

if you have a family

For 'a family of your own', English wants a family – the definite article would point to a particular, already-known family.

WhyWhere the first language has no articles, over-use is as common as under-use once the speaker starts supplying them.

it was hard task

it was a hard task

A singular countable noun after IS/WAS takes A/AN.

WhyRussian это была трудная задача – eto 'this' / byla 'was' / trudnaja zadacha 'hard task'. Russian marks definiteness through context and case, never through an article, so the slot for English A simply isn't there to fill.

several of rules

several rules

Several attaches straight to the plural noun, with no of.

WhySpanish varios attaches directly too, but the partitive de in neighbouring frames (miles de) pulls of into the slot.

when I will have finish the experiment

when I have finished the experiment

After when / by the time, English drops will: when I have finished, not 'when I will have finished'.

WhySwedish often uses the present for scheduled future and has modal patterns (ska, kommer att) that map imperfectly onto English will / going to, so the future marker gets carried into the time clause.

dis-tin-wish

distinguish – dis-TING-gwish

TING-gw sits in the middle of the word – do not drop the g before the w.

passenger transportations

passenger transport

Transport is uncountable: no plural. If you need to count, use a unit noun – a means of transport.

WhyThe Ukrainian counterpart is countable, so the English plural -s attaches where English allows none. The set to hold as uncountable: information, transport, advice, research, news.

I decided to study hard in the future

I've decided to study hard

Fine grammar, but check the logic: the decision stands now, so the present perfect carries the present relevance.

He explained us the problem.

He explained the problem to us.

Explain does not take an indirect object without to: explain something to someone.

WhySpanish explicarnos algo attaches the indirect object directly to the verb as a clitic, so the English to has no counterpart to prompt it.

in very kind way

in a very kind way

a ... way always takes a: in a kind way, in a similar way.

WhyMandarin has no articles at all, so the small word has to be supplied English-side every time.

I went to music festival

I went to a music festival

A first-mention countable noun takes a or an.

WhyKorean has no a / an / the; specificity is carried instead by demonstratives (i 'this', geu 'that') and by word order, so the English article has no source to transfer from.

Pick a clock and keep it

Every conditional lives on one timeline. Choose it before you write the 'if', and keep both halves of the sentence on it.

• General truth (present real): When people engage socially, they report better health.
• Unreal now (second): If people engaged more, they would report better health.
• Unreal past (third): If people had engaged more, they would have reported better health.

CautionThe common slip is mixing the third conditional's had engaged with the second's would report. For a fact that is generally true, the present real is cleanest – and dodges the trap entirely.

even though it's very close to city centre

close to the city centre

The city centre takes the – there is one, and we both know which.

WhyPolish carries definiteness by context rather than by an article, so shared-reference nouns arrive bare in English.

if I watch them in cinema

if I watch them at the cinema

Place-nouns in fixed expressions take their set article: at the cinema, at the theatre (British English).

WhyRussian has no article system, so fixed English place-expressions have to be stored whole rather than derived.

who has been an important role

who has played an important role

Roles are played, not been: the noun has already chosen its verb.

WhySpanish ha tenido un papel importante uses tener ('have') for holding a role; *has been a role* is a half-translation that neither Spanish ser nor tener licenses.

Eventually it worked

Possibly it worked

Eventually means in the end; possibly means perhaps. They are not interchangeable.

WhySwedish eventuellt means possibly, never eventually – a false friend that survives long after the grammar has gone quiet. Its partner is aktuell, which is not 'actual' but 'current'.

if everything stay stable

if everything stays stable

Everything is grammatically singular and takes the -s form of the verb.

it's a sea city

it's a coastal city (a port city)

English fixes this as coastal city, port city or seaside town – sea city is not an available compound.

Whyморське місто / місто біля моря – морський is the natural Ukrainian adjective 'of the sea', so the word-for-word map is sea + city. Ukrainian would balk at nothing: морське місто is perfectly idiomatic, which is why the calque is invisible from inside the first language.

Online shopping has grown faster in everywhere

Online shopping has grown rapidly everywhere

Faster compares two things – nothing is compared here. And everywhere never takes in.

I cannot disconnect with my routine.

I cannot disconnect / switch off from my routine.

Disconnect and switch off both take FROM.

WhySpanish desconectar de la rutina – the de is being rendered as with rather than from.

draw some painting

draw a painting / some paintings

Decide singular or plural and commit: a painting (one) or some paintings (several) – not some painting.

WhyMandarin doesn't mark plural on the noun, so number is a decision English adds.

I have been many countries

I have been to many countries

Have been takes to before a place: I have been to many countries.

WhyKorean marks the destination with a particle attached to the noun, so the free-standing English to has nothing to copy from and drops.

Show, don't tell

Whenever you write 'for instance', give a real, specific case – not a hypothetical, and not a gesture at unnamed research. Band 8 support is specific and self-standing.

• A grandparent who shares meals and conversation with grandchildren is likely to report markedly better emotional well-being than one left alone.

CautionA hypothetical dressed up as evidence fails twice: 'for instance' promises a concrete case, and 'according to studies' with no study named is empty.

if you have free evening

if you have a free evening

A free evening – one of many, first mention, so a.

especially British version

especially the British version

A uniquely-specified noun takes THE – there is only one of it.

WhyRussian carries specificity through demonstratives, word order and case rather than an article, so a uniquely identified noun arrives in English with the determiner slot still empty.

depend what our client needs

it depends on what our client needs

Depend takes ON, and a full clause can follow it.

WhySpanish depender DE maps to DEPEND ON; the preposition pairs are erratic between the two languages and are best stored as fixed units.

The partition rule – becoming many takes INTO

When something is split up so that it becomes several things, English uses into, because into carries a sense of motion or result – one thing turning into many. Compare in, which is static: it describes where something already sits.

• divide into
• split into
• break into
• cut into
• separate into
• translate into

CautionThe test is becoming, or sitting? A bug in the authentication module and the key in the header are static, so they take in – the same sentence can hold both.

I don't worried

I'm not worried

Worried is an adjective, not a verb, so it is negated with am / is / are not, never with don't. The quick test: if you could put very in front of the word (very worried, very tired, very sure), it is an adjective, and adjectives are negated with BE.

WhyTurkish negates in two different ways depending on what is being negated: verbs take a suffix (gitmiyorum, 'I am-not-going'), but non-verbal predicates – adjectives and nouns – take the separate word değil: endişeli değilim, literally 'worried not-I-am'. English also splits two ways, along a slightly different line. The learner has the same two-branch system already and simply took the verbal branch for an adjectival predicate.

it was under the Polish ruling

it was under Polish rule

A ruling is a single decision (a court's ruling); sustained governance is rule – under Polish rule, under Habsburg rule. And the phrase takes no article.

Whyпід польським пануванням / правлінням – one Ukrainian noun covers 'rule', and the first language does not distinguish a single decision from sustained governance.

because that they don't have activity in the day

because they don't have activity in the day

Because takes the clause directly – no that.

She has fears with the unknown.

She has a fear of the unknown.

The noun owns its preposition: fear OF. And a fear takes the singular with the indefinite article.

WhySpanish miedo a – the a is translated as with, and the dependent preposition of the English noun is never consulted.

while I were doing my homework

while I was doing my homework

I takes was; only we/you/they take were. (The time clause itself is correctly assembled – the fault inside it belongs to another system.)

WhyMandarin offers one verb form where English asks you to choose between two, so the agreement system is asking for a decision the first language never requires.

I explained about the problem to my manager and discussed about the fix.

I explained the problem to my manager and discussed the fix.

Explain and discuss both take a direct object. The about is added by analogy with talk about, and it is the most common Korean-speaker slip at this level.

Establishment of workplaces near residential areas reduces commuting.

The establishment of jobs near residential areas reduces commuting.

Abstract noun + of takes the. And workplaces is the building; jobs is what he meant.

to be in contrary just to earn more money

on the contrary

The fixed phrase is on the contrary, and it takes no to after it; the version that does take to is contrary to what people think.

WhyPolish's case system maps prepositions differently, so English set phrases arrive a shade off and are best memorised as collocations.

places that was unused

places that were unused

A plural head noun takes a plural verb, including inside a relative clause.

WhyRussian marks agreement richly but on a different grid, so the English-specific concord rules are the ones that slip under speed.

I decide to go

I decided to go

A finished past event must be marked: add -d / -ed.

WhySpanish marks the past on the verb stem with a full set of distinct endings (decidí, decidiste, decidió), so the tense is unmissable; English does the same work with one small, often barely audible syllable.

The in/on/at time set

English carves time prepositions into three fixed sets: in + season / month / year / part of the day; on + day / date; at + clock time / night / festival. Learn them as a set rather than deriving them one at a time.

• in the summer
• in July
• in 2026
• on Monday
• on the 5th
• at 9am
• at Christmas

CautionSwedish på is a broad preposition that English carves up between in, on and at – på sommaren is literally 'on the-summer', so on surfaces where English wants in.

this is worried

this is worrying

-ed describes how a person feels; -ing describes what a thing is. A person is worried; a falling heart rate is worrying. Say 'this is worried' and you have accidentally given the observation feelings.

WhyThis is not a gap in Turkish. Turkish distinguishes the two perfectly well – endişeli ('worried') beside endişe verici ('worry-giving', worrying); yorgun ('tired') beside yorucu ('tiring'). There is no concept to acquire, only an English pairing to memorise, because English builds both from the same verb with two nearly identical endings.

sadly to say

sad to say (or: sadly, / regrettably,)

The set phrase is adjective + to say – sad to say – or the bare sentence adverb sadly, / regrettably,.

Whyна жаль, мушу сказати / сумно казати – the adverbial 'sadly' maps straight onto the sentence, dragging -ly into a slot English keeps for the adjective. Ukrainian would balk at nothing; the adverb is the natural choice in the source and English simply fixes the idiom differently.

so it is bad for people health

so it is bad for people's health

A possessor takes an apostrophe: people's health.

depend of / consist in

depend on / consist of

Two of the most common dependent pairs in academic and business English, and the two most often crossed over.

WhySpanish depende de and consiste en supply exactly the wrong English prepositions: de suggests of for depend, and en suggests in for consist.

sometimes it's be difficult

sometimes it is difficult

It's already contains is, so be has nothing left to do. (If you mean it happens occasionally: it can be difficult.)

Whyhěn cōngmíng ('very clever') needs no copula at all in Mandarin, which is why the be turns up as an extra, unattached word in English.

one of the best way to learn

one of the best ways to learn

After 'one of the' the noun is always plural – one of the best ways, one of my friends.

it's not enough to justified the costs

it's not enough to justify the costs

After to, the bare infinitive: to justify, to reduce, to support. The past form never follows to. An easy self-check under exam pressure: if you can say I want to –, that is the form you need.

we'll be living a little bit further away the city centre

further away from the city centre

Further away needs from before the place.

WhyPolish routes these relations through case endings rather than dedicated prepositions, so the English particle drifts or drops.

everybody try to

everybody tries to

Everybody / everyone / nobody are grammatically singular in English despite their plural sense.

WhyRussian все 'everyone' takes a plural verb, which is the source of the slip.

I have invite some friends

I have invited some friends

After HAVE, the participle.

WhyThe same quiet -ed ending carries the past simple, the perfect and the passive in English; that triple load is why it is the first thing to fall away under speed.

One negative per idea

Once you have used a negative-ish word like barely, hardly or scarcely, the next word must be any, not no. If you want no, drop the first negative instead.

• barely any requirement at all
• hardly any requirements at all
• scarcely any evidence
• almost no requirements at all

CautionThis is not a stylistic preference but a structural refusal: Swedish knappt inga krav alls is perfectly good Swedish, and the calque barely no requirements is ungrammatical in English.

her dilation is more slow

her dilation is slower

A one-syllable adjective takes -er, never more.

WhyTurkish forms the comparative with the separate word daha before the adjective (daha büyük, 'bigger'), exactly like English more – so the analytic half transfers free, and the half Turkish does not have, the -er ending on short adjectives, is where the error falls.

it was under Austro-Hungarian empire

it was under the Austro-Hungarian empire

Named empires, unions and organisations take the: the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the European Union, the Habsburg Monarchy. Countries and months take none.

WhyUkrainian has no article system, so both directions of error are predicted; empires and unions are the the-taking exceptions that have to be held alongside the zero-article rule for countries.

I believe that it is advantages are greater

I believe that its advantages are greater

Its = possessive, one word. It's = it is.

married with / dream with

married to / dream of, dream about

The adjective and the verb each own their preposition, and neither takes with.

WhySpanish casado con and sonar con (soñar con) both use con, which translates as with and produces two errors from a single habit.

drive a bicycle

ride a bicycle

English splits by vehicle: you drive a car, a bus, a lorry (things with a wheel you turn) but you ride a bicycle, a horse, a motorbike (things you sit on top of).

WhyThis one is not the first language pulling you the wrong way: Mandarin makes exactly the same distinction – qí for things you sit astride, kāi for things you steer from inside – so Mandarin would have given the right answer. It is an ordinary English overgeneralisation of drive.

other countries people

people from other countries

English keeps short adjectives in front of the noun but re-hangs longer modifiers after it, using of, from or that: people from other countries, the book that I read.

WhyKorean is strongly head-final: modifiers, including whole relative clauses, come before the noun, stacking modifier + modifier + noun. Other countries people is that stacking carried straight into English.

if elderly people had regularly engaged ..., they would report an improved state of well-being

when elderly people regularly engage ..., they report an improved state of well-being

You mixed the clocks: 'had engaged' is the unreal past (third conditional), but 'would report' points at now. For a general truth, keep both halves in the present: when ... engage ... they report.

I did some mistakes for sure

I made some mistakes

There is no rule that sorts do from make – it is memorised pairs: make a mistake, make a decision, make money, make friends; do business, do research, do the homework.

WhyPolish robić covers both English do and make – one word where English insists on two – so zrobić błąd ('do/make a mistake') comes out as do a mistake.

those are the most popular one

those are the most popular ones

A plural subject needs the plural pro-form: those are the popular ones.

WhyRussian это самые популярные – samye populjarnye 'most popular'. The adjective ending (-ye) carries the plural and there is no separate one/ones pro-form, so the English pro-form gets left singular.

the general rule is that evidence is exclude

the general rule is that evidence is excluded

After passive BE, the participle.

WhyWorth noting what went right: the English analytic passive was reached for at all, where Spanish speakers commonly prefer the se-construction. The structure was the harder part; only the ending fell off.

The delete-test

Can you delete the clause and still know who or what you mean? Yes → non-defining, so it takes a pair of commas. No → defining, so it takes no commas at all.

• The firewall that blocks port 22 is the important one (defining, no commas)
• The firewall, which we installed last week, blocked the attack (non-defining, commas)

Cautionthat belongs to defining clauses only – a non-defining clause must use who or which, and it keeps its pronoun and its commas always. In a defining clause the object pronoun can be dropped (the tool I use) or reduced further (the process running in the background, the data collected overnight).

The most safe option

the safest option

Short adjectives take -est for the superlative, never most: safe → safer → safest; high → higher → highest.

WhyTurkish forms the superlative with the separate word en (en büyük, 'biggest'), which matches English most exactly – so most is the form that feels natural, and the English -est switch has no Turkish counterpart.

Russia hoped for the breakthrough in Ukraine

Russia hoped for a breakthrough

A common noun on first mention takes a, not the: a breakthrough, a setback, a merger.

WhyUkrainian has no words equivalent to a/an or the; specificity is carried by demonstratives (цей/ця/це/ці 'this'; той/та/те/ті 'that'), by word order and by context, so the article is supplied fresh in English – and over-use on generics is the dominant direction.

a school ... the future

CreditedArabic has no indefinite article and its definite article behaves differently from English, so Arabic-L1 speakers typically over-use THE and drop A/AN. Here the correct indefinite for a first mention and the correct definite for a unique reference both arrived without hesitation. For this first language these are precisely the small words that usually wobble first, and they held on day one – the article system reads as an asset, not a risk.

a French cooker

a French cook

A cooker is the appliance; the person is a cook, or a chef.

WhyA word that looks English but is not – the fluent speaker's frontier is lexis rather than structure.

safe areas have been built in mountains

safe areas have been built in the mountains

The small words still have to be chosen: a specific, known range takes the.

WhyMandarin has no article system, so every English article is an added decision – the last thing to settle even when the big structure is correct.

Very surprised was I when I saw the mess

I was very surprised when I saw the mess

English inversion is triggered by a fronted negative (never, rarely, not only), not by emphasis in general – an emphatic adjective at the front does not license reversing subject and verb.

WhyKorean is strongly head-final (SOV), with the verb last and modifiers before what they modify. Under emphasis, Korean speakers sometimes over-reverse the English order, producing very tired am I today.

the expenses of maintaining services, such as medical treatment, pensions, for elderly people

maintaining services such as medical treatment and pensions

The inserted list cuts the subject off from its verb. Close it with and and drop the stray commas so the sentence can breathe.

do something from the wood

make something from wood

Make is create or produce a result; do is perform an activity – and the pairs are learned, not derived.

WhyZrobić coś z drewna ('do/make something from wood') is one Polish verb doing both jobs; English forces a choice with nothing underneath it.

everybody who are interested

everybody who is interested

The indefinite pronouns everybody / everyone / somebody / nobody are grammatically singular, and the relative clause agrees with them.

WhyRussian agreement is rich but organised on a different grid, so this is an English-surface tidy-up rather than a conceptual gap.

everybody know that exist

everybody knows that it exists

Two repairs: everybody is singular, and the subordinate clause needs its own subject.

WhySpanish is pro-drop – subject pronouns are omitted because person and number live on the verb – so the English dummy subject has to be supplied consciously.

The generic-article rule

When a noun means the whole category rather than one specific instance, English uses no article. Add the only when you mean a particular one that both speaker and reader can identify.

• social media is powerful
• encryption matters
• technology moves fast
• the encryption on that server was out of date

CautionA handful of institutional nouns keep the definite article as a fixed phrase – the law, for instance – so the generic rule is a default, not an absolute.

The midwives who has been working in the delivery room.

The midwives who have been working in the delivery room will be supervised.

Two things: a plural subject inside a relative clause takes a plural verb (midwives who have), and a relative clause is not yet a sentence – the main clause still needs its own verb.

WhyTurkish puts the describing part in front of the noun and stops there, so there is no structural prompt to carry on to a main verb once the description is finished.

a city in Lombardy region

a city in the Lombardy region

Region and province names built as NAME + common noun take the: the Lombardy region, the Piedmont province, the Basque Country.

WhyWith no article system in the first language, a named region arrives in English bare – the case ending that did the work in Ukrainian has no English equivalent.

although ... I believe ...

CreditedThe although / I believe concession shape in the final sentence is exactly the Band 6+ conclusion move – conceding the other side and then declaring a position in one sentence. Marked as a keeper rather than corrected, because it is already doing what the higher band asks for.

my job is different as I imagined

my job is different from what I imagined

English fixes the linkers: different from (British English also different to; different than is American usage only).

WhyCatalan diferent de and Spanish diferente de/a supply a different pairing, and com/como covers likeness – so the transfer lands as *different as*.

bake honey biscuit

bake honey biscuits

A batch is countable, so the noun goes plural.

WhyMandarin doesn't mark plural on the noun, so the -s is supplied English-side.

The one who broke it, it was my sister

It was my sister who broke it

An English it-cleft is a single frame: It was X who/that ... – there is no second, echoing pronoun.

WhyKorean marks emphasis with the topic particle -eun/-neun and by fronting, not with an extra frame, so the tempting slip is a topic-echo: the topic is named first and then referred to again by a pronoun.

governments are obliged to bear the responsibility of providing funding

governments are obliged to fund elderly care

Band 8 says the same thing in fewer, sharper words. The instinct to reach for less-common vocabulary is right – trim the padding around it.

we are not telling that we are from another company

we're not saying that we are from another company

You tell someone (a person), but you say that ... (a fact). With no listener in the slot, the verb is say.

WhyPolish mówić and powiedzieć cover both English verbs, so the split has to be learned as a frame rather than a meaning.

the renovation were being performed

the renovation was being performed

A singular noun subject takes the singular auxiliary, even when a plural sits nearby: was + being + past participle.

I did that mistake

I made that mistake

Mistakes are made, never done.

WhySpanish hacer spreads across both DO and MAKE, so the split has to be learned noun by noun – the same file as tener sentido → make sense.

With BE, count the subject

English keeps number on only one verb – be. So the whole of agreement collapses to a single narrow habit: find the real subject, count it, and choose are/were for plural, is/was for singular. The same instinct catches the third-person -s.

• the drawbacks are
• the risk is
• the vulnerabilities were
• the patch was
• the system runs

CautionMatch the verb to the real subject, not to the nearest noun: the reports ... show, and every one of the servers ... is.

I will have controlled all the wards

I will have checked all the wards

In English, control means to direct or restrain something; to inspect it is to check it.

WhyA false friend from Turkish kontrol, which covers the sense English gives to check – so the English cognate is reached for and lands on the wrong meaning.

it's the second largest city in Lombardy region

the second-largest city in the Lombardy region

The same NAME + common noun rule, and note the hyphen: second-largest.

WhyThe no-article first language leaves the definite article to be supplied fresh every time; twice in one session makes this a fixed unit worth hard-wiring.

IF + HAD + third form. WOULD + HAVE + third form. Both doors, both locks.

the order is similar than the last things I said

the order is similar to the last things I said

Similar takes TO, never than.

WhyCatalan/Spanish similar a maps to similar to; than arrives by analogy with the -er comparative.

The hill was very steep that we had to walk.

The hill was so steep that we had to walk.

Keep the SO in so … that. Very cannot carry a result clause.

Maybe it is the dog, because the food is gone

It must be the dog, because the food is gone

English grades certainty with a modal, not with an adverb: must for sure, can't for impossible, might / may / could for possible.

WhyKorean marks 'probably / it seems / surely' with sentence-final endings (-gess-, -eul geot gata) rather than with separate modal words, so the natural reach in English is for a standalone adverb like maybe.

I disagree with this view; I believe that

I firmly believe / I am convinced that

State the position once and state it strongly; the disagreement is already implied by the argument that follows.

it looks quite well

it looks quite good

Well is about health or how something is done; a thing that pleases the eye looks good. Looks well would mean it has recovered from illness.

it affect their money and success

it affects their money and success

A singular subject takes the -s form of the verb.

taken different decisions

made different decisions

Take a decision is real English – formal, institutional, and it belongs to committees rather than to people reflecting on their own lives. Make a decision is the default: it works in every register and it is what a marker expects.

WhySpanish tomar una decisión has not invented a phrase; it has landed on a genuine but narrow one. Tomar, hacer and dar spread across English take / make / do / give without mapping cleanly, so the pairs are stored whole.

The negative jumps in front of TO

English puts the negative before the infinitive marker, not after it: not to get, not to be, not to worry.

• try not to get eaten alive
• I decided not to reply
• he promised not to tell
• be careful not to click it

CautionTo not get isn't strictly wrong – the split version has been in English for centuries and is common in speech. But try not to is overwhelmingly the idiomatic pairing, and at the top of the scale you are marked on what a native speaker would actually have said, not merely on what is permissible.

there is a long hospital

there is a large hospital

Long describes extent in one dimension; a building of great size is large or big.

they agreed to live by the international law

agreed to abide by international law

The body of law in general is an uncountable generic: zero article. The returns only for a specified instrument – the law of the sea.

WhyOver-use is the dominant direction for a no-article first language: the definite article attaches to abstract and uncountable nouns used generically (the luck, the poverty, the money).

Would HAVE learned. Would HAVE gone. The HAVE is the engine.

the best ingredients as Italy

the best ingredients, as good as those in Italy

The equality frame is as ... as, and both halves of the comparison must be present.

WhyCatalan tan ... com / Spanish tan ... como uses com/como for likeness, which surfaces in English as a bare as.

My brother practises every day as a result he is the fastest.

My brother practises every day. As a result, he is the fastest.

As a result is a linking adverb, not a joining word. Like however and therefore, it needs a full stop in front.

here is together my family

my family is together here

English fixes subject-verb-object order even after a fronted word like here – the subject still comes next.

WhyKorean is subject-object-verb and frequently leads with the topic rather than the grammatical subject, so under fluency the English order drifts to match.

divert more resources to elderly care

CreditedMarked as already good and a keeper – the only upgrade offered (channel greater resources into elderly care) is a refinement of a phrase that was working. Alongside it: a clear thesis with a restated conclusion, balanced both-views paragraphing, complex sentences under control, and strong lexis – demographic, divert resources, financial strain.

we don't have a flag product

a flagship product

A company's best, lead product is its flagship.

it affect on their money

it affects their money (no on)

Affect is transitive and takes a direct object with no preposition. The on only appears with the noun: it has an effect on their money.

WhyRussian encodes with case what English marks with prepositions, so влиять на ('to influence on') transfers the on straight across into affect on.

the most exciting experience I ever done

the most exciting experience I have ever had

Experiences are had, not done: the noun chose its verb long ago. MAKE a decision / an effort / progress; HAVE an experience / an impact / an opportunity; DO research / harm / your best; TAKE a risk / a break / action.

WhySpanish hacer, tener and tomar divide this territory differently – and here tener una experiencia was actually pointing at HAVE all along, so the English DO intruded on its own.

The one-verb-for-two family

Several European languages use a single verb where English splits DO from MAKE, and the same error surfaces in each of them: Swedish göra (göra ett misstag = 'make a mistake', göra läxor = 'do homework'), German machen, Slovak robiť. Because the boundary cannot be derived from meaning, the remedy is identical whatever the first language: learn fixed pairs. MAKE for produced results – make a mistake, a decision, a backup, progress. DO for activities and work – do research, a scan, the configuration, your homework.

Seen inSwedish, German, Slovak

she will go to the theatre

she will go to theatre

A process used as a function takes no article in clinical English: we go to theatre, keep a patient in hospital – the same pattern as at university. A named, specific place still takes the: to the labour suite, to the postnatal ward.

it was a clear violation of the international law

a clear violation of international law

Same pattern, same fix: a generic body of law wears no article.

WhyThe first language marks no definiteness at all, so a generic abstract noun attracts an English the by feel rather than by rule.

IN the future. Fi travels with the phrase – bring it across.

I use car, bus and motorbike

I travel by car, bus and motorbike

English uses either BY + bare noun (by car, by bus) or THE + noun (take the bus) – but not a bare list.

We stayed indoor and played game all afternoon.

We stayed indoors and played a game all afternoon.

Mandarin marks neither number nor definiteness, so both the -s and the a have to be added deliberately until they become automatic.

First I stayed in here I'm very nervous

When I first stayed here, I was very nervous

A past story needs a linking word (when) and the past tense right through it – once the frame is past, the verbs are past too.

WhyKorean marks tense with verb suffixes rather than a separate auxiliary and often sets the time once for a whole stretch of speech, so the English past can lapse mid-story.

People ARE. People DON'T. People RECEIVE. The plural hides, but it is there.

it works as a whispering advertisement that they are telling about us

it works by word of mouth, with people telling others about us

The English idiom is word of mouth – it works by word of mouth, or it spreads through word-of-mouth recommendation.

it was great party

it was a great party

A singular countable on first mention needs a/an.

WhyRussian has no article system, so the first-mention a/an has to be supplied by hand.

do quick decisions

make quick decisions

Decisions are made.

WhyThe light-verb spread again: hacer covers both DO and MAKE.

The referencing-kit dividend

Swedish supplies nearly the whole English referencing kit one-to-one: den / det (it / that), denna / detta (this), sådan (such), den ena ... den andra (the one ... the other), and göra det (do so / do it) for substituting a whole verb phrase. A Korean or Chinese speaker has to build that system from nothing. This is why cohesion verdicts diverge so sharply by first language – for one learner it is a place to show off, for another it is a place to survive – and why a report should say which of the two it is rather than grading cohesion as if it cost every learner the same.

Seen inSwedish, Korean, Chinese

If I am doing it correctly...

If I am doing it correctly, my confidence grows.

An if-clause is only half a sentence – finish the pair with a main clause. This is the same 'complete the sentence' step as the relative clause: the subordinate part cannot stand alone.

WhyTurkish puts the subordinate material first and can stop there in ways English cannot, so the hanging clause appears most often in throwaway lines rather than in drilled work.

on the night from Saturday to Sunday

overnight from Saturday into Sunday / on Saturday night / in the early hours of Sunday

English news register prefers overnight, or names the single night – the frame 'on the night from X to Y' does not exist.

WhyA direct calque of в ніч з суботи на неділю: the з...на case frame is Ukrainian time logic wearing English prepositions.

GO TO university. Natives go; they rarely enter.

at the end – it's the quiet hour I enjoy most

in the end, it's the quiet hour I enjoy most

In the end means 'finally, all things considered'; at the end needs an object – at the end of the day.

It's so bored.

It was so boring.

The film is boring; you are bored. -ing describes the thing, -ed describes the person feeling it.

Invested there for 3 years ago

I invested there 3 years ago / for 3 years

3 years ago names a point in the past; for 3 years names a duration. They are two different ideas and cannot be combined – pick one.

I BORROW FROM you. I LEND TO you. Two verbs, two directions.

us buying house

us buying a house

A first-mention, countable, singular noun always takes a.

WhyPolish has none, so every English a and the is built from nothing rather than translated.

I was on a foam party

I was at a foam party

English fixes AT as the location preposition for events: at a party, at a conference.

WhyRussian marks the relation with case rather than a preposition, so the English preposition is chosen freshly each time and has to be stored as a fixed unit.

recent researches shows

recent research shows

Research is uncountable – much and little, never a plural -s and never a. When you need to count, switch nouns: studies, trials, papers, findings.

WhySpanish counts several nouns that English refuses to count: las investigaciones, los consejos, las informaciones are all grammatical Spanish; researches, advices and informations are not English.

The city where I live in has great data centres

The city where I live has great data centres

No double preposition: where already carries 'in which', so the stranded in has to go.

The silent final -e

An English final -e is usually silent, and its real job is to reach back and stretch the vowel before it. See the -e, don't say the -e, and lengthen the vowel.

• bride = BRYD
• wide = WYD
• side = SYD
• time = TYM
• name = NAYM
• wine = WYN

CautionThis is exactly the wrong instinct for a transparent orthography like Turkish, where a final -e is always pronounced – the reading habit has to be suspended, not sharpened.

we operate by the headquarters

we operate from / out of the headquarters (or: we are based at the headquarters)

By the headquarters means only physical adjacency in English; operating out of a place takes from or out of.

WhyThe first language folds 'at/by a place of work' into a single case-marked preposition, which surfaces in English as by translated word for word.

ONLY steps before the verb: only teaches Arabic.

I can be in the bus and read

I can be on the bus and read

You travel ON a bus, train or plane (large vehicles you board), but IN a car.

We waited outside ,the bus was late.It rained all day.What a start.

We waited outside. The bus was late. It rained all day. What a start.

Chinese full-width punctuation carries its own spacing, so it transfers as a space before the comma and none after the full stop. English: no space before, one space after.

I have been climbed

I have been climbing

The present perfect continuous is have/has been + V-ing. Have been climbed is a different thing altogether – a passive – which is why it sounds wrong for an action you did yourself.

WhyKorean marks the past with a suffix (-ass/-eoss) and the progressive with -go iss-, but has no form matching the English perfect (have + V3) or perfect continuous (have been + V-ing). The PPC therefore has to be assembled from English parts rather than mapped across.

Equip MYSELF. Familiarise MYSELF. English says the 'self' out loud.

from the another company

from another company

Another already contains its article – it is literally an + other – so the another is a double article.

WhyA speaker whose first language has no articles has no feel for which words already carry one, so a fixed trap like another attracts a second determiner.

I was in a great company of my friends

I was in great company

In good/great company is a fixed expression that drops the a – or becomes in the company of...

WhyRussian has no articles, so errors surface in both directions: an article supplied where English wants none, and omitted where English requires one.

a ten percent of the brains

ten per cent of the brain

English percentages take no article, and the brain is singular as an organ.

WhySpanish el diez por ciento carries the definite article, which travels across as an English a or the.

products made locally

CreditedA correctly formed reduced relative clause: the full form would be 'products that are made locally', and 'that are' has been trimmed exactly as English allows for a passive (-ed) reduction. This is the first clean production of the very reduction flagged a session earlier as the least familiar part of the relative system for a Swedish speaker – Swedish som has no direct equivalent of the English reductions that drop the pronoun and the verb be, so there is no L1 pattern to lean on.

The -ed syllable rule

The -ed ending adds a whole extra syllable only when the word already ends in a t or d sound. Everywhere else it flattens onto the end of the word.

• admitted = ad-MIT-id (3) – adds a beat
• expanded, divided – add a beat
• raised = RAYZD (1) – no beat
• examined = ig-ZAM-ind (3) – no beat added
• referred = ri-FERD (2) – no beat added

CautionOn a clinical ward this covers most of the verbs you use, so the rule earns its keep in speech far more than in reading.

we have this debate of trade agreement

this debate about / over the trade agreement

Debate takes about or over its topic; of never introduces the subject of a debate.

WhyUkrainian folds the relation into a case ending, so the English preposition has to be chosen anew and the of-genitive is the default reach.

Sound native by noticing, not by hurrying.

was appeared

appeared

The passive needs an object to promote: they built the house → the house was built. Appear has no object, so it cannot go passive. The test is quick – X-ed WHAT? No answer, no passive.

WhyCatalan and Spanish lean heavily on reflexive and se-forms, which blur whether the verb is doing something or having something done to it; the instinct is then to wrap the verb in BE.

I'll take some photos and show it with my friends

... and show them to my friends

The pronoun has to match the plural noun it points back to – photos is plural, so the pronoun is them, not it – and the verb is show ... to, not show ... with.

WhyMandarin doesn't mark plural (the marker -men is human-only and optional), so the English plural – and the pronoun that should agree with it – is the work.

population more smaller than other countries

population smaller than other countries

Short adjectives add -er (small → smaller, big → bigger); long ones take more (more important, more influential) – but never both.

WhyKorean makes comparatives with deo ('more') placed before the adjective, with no ending on the adjective itself. In English, deo surfaces as more while the -er is added as well, so the comparative gets marked twice.

Achieve a GOAL. Complete a TASK.

chatting with colleague

chatting with a colleague

First-mention singular countable takes a/an.

WhyPolish has no a/an/the, so English articles are added rather than translated; at C2 the volume is low but the discipline is everything.

closer to mountains

closer to the mountains

A specific, identifiable noun takes THE.

WhyRussian carries specificity through demonstratives (этот / тот), word order and case rather than an article.

Cities that plan carefully have fewer mistakes

Cities that plan carefully make fewer mistakes

Mistakes are made.

WhyA light verb carries almost no meaning – the noun does the work – and Spanish hacer / tener / tomar do not divide the territory the way English make / have / take do.

I've never gotten any malware installed

CreditedLook at the structure under the American spelling: get + any malware + installed (past participle) is the get-passive – a real, idiomatic passive meaning 'have malware installed by someone or something'. It was built correctly and used naturally; the only thing to change is the dialect of the participle (British English wants got). Marking it as a credit rather than an error is what separates a structural verdict from a spelling one.

A lone letter says its name

An initialism is not read as a word: it breaks into separate letters, each said with its own English letter-name. The sting is in the letter I, which alone is EYE.

• BMI = BEE-em-EYE
• IV = EYE-VEE
• ID = EYE-DEE
• GP = jee-PEE
• A and E = ay-and-EE

CautionSpell the letter-names long – BEE, JEE – not the short vowels a Turkish reader would give them.

this is why it was called this way

this is why it was given that name / why it's called that

English names things that, not this way – this way means manner, not designation.

WhyA calque of називається так, where the Ukrainian manner adverb covers the designation sense English splits off.

No verb? Add be. They are superstitious. The reason was that...

was arrived

arrived

Arrive has no object, so it has nothing to promote into the subject slot: she arrived, full stop.

WhyThe same se-passive blur produced both tokens.

do sports can bring their health, they can keep healthy

doing sports can improve their health; it keeps them healthy

When an action is the subject of a sentence, English uses the -ing form: Doing sports..., not Do sports... And the word pairing is improve or be good for your health – bring health doesn't quite fit.

WhyMandarin verbs take no endings and can sit side by side (a serial-verb pattern: zuò yùndòng 'do sport'), so an action can head a sentence without the -ing English needs.

their names write on very big rocks

their names are written on very big rocks

The names do not do the writing – someone wrote them – so English uses the passive: BE + past participle, are written or were written.

WhyKorean forms the passive with an infix or with -eojida on the verb stem, which is very different from the English two-part BE + V3. Because the machinery is so unlike, an English passive context can slip back into the active.

After TO, the plain verb: to justify, to reduce, to support.

when I was child

when I was a child

A singular countable noun after was takes an article – a child.

WhyWith no article system to copy, the noun after the copula reads as a label and the article slot stays empty.

I'd like to explore the nature

I'd like to explore nature

A general concept takes no article at all: explore nature, not the nature.

WhyBecause Russian would use the bare noun for the general concept, English article errors go in both directions – over-use here, omission elsewhere.

they are mostly exposed to cultural shocks, different food, etiquettes

they are far more exposed to culture shock, different food, etiquette

Etiquette and culture shock take no plural – the uncountable rule again.

WhySpanish counts nouns English refuses to count, and the plural -s travels across with them.

has also brought a lot of positive change

CreditedThe also is itself a cohesive device, correctly placed – mid-sentence, after the auxiliary, where English wants it. The sentence's only fault was the definite article in front of the generic noun that opened it, so the cohesion count came away clean even though the sentence carried a charge.

The discharge stress shift

Discharge changes meaning with its stress: as a noun, the stress is on the first syllable (DIS-charge – what you assess and document); as a verb, it moves to the second (to dis-CHARGE a patient – to send them home). Same spelling, two stresses, two meanings.

• The DIS-charge notes are ready
• We will dis-CHARGE her tomorrow

CautionGetting this wrong is not cosmetic in a clinical setting – a mispronounced discharge at handover is a patient-safety matter, because the two stresses name two different things.

coming in agreement

coming to an agreement (or reaching an agreement)

English fixes this as come to / reach an agreement – store it as one lexical chunk rather than building it from the verb outward.

WhyHere the first language actually helps: прийти до згоди uses до = 'to', exactly the English preposition – so this is a slip against a partner already available, not a deep calque.

Bare 'be' is never a tense: when I am alone – never 'when I be'.

yesterday I feel really bad

yesterday I felt really bad

A finished past event takes the past form, irregular or not.

WhyRomance languages mark the past by changing the whole verb (vaig sentir, sentí), so it is unmissable; English often does it with one quiet syllable, or an irregular form that has to be recalled outright.

I turn on my computer firstly

I turn on my computer first

For a real sequence of actions English prefers plain first; firstly is for listing points in an essay.

I misunderstand

I misunderstood

Misunderstand is irregular: misunderstand → misunderstood. A past event needs the past form.

Mixed conditional: the past explains the present. Had invested, would not be.

we creating a standards

we are creating standards

A generic plural takes no article – a can never sit on a plural. (And a continuous needs its auxiliary: we are creating.)

WhyThis is the mirror error of article omission: once a speaker whose first language has no articles starts supplying them, they land where English wants none.

every purposes

every purpose

Every is always followed by a singular noun, even though the meaning is plural.

WhyRussian agreement works differently around quantifiers, so the English quantifier rules have to be learned on the English side.

The etiquettes are different and cultural shocks are common.

The etiquette is different and culture shock is common.

Both are uncountable in English. Same family as researches → research and differents → different from the session before.

BE + the third form. Change the BE, and you have every tense there is.

The -TION rule

Every English word ending in -tion or -sion stresses the syllable immediately before that ending, without exception. Ask one question of any unfamiliar long clinical word – does it end in -tion? – and you already know where the stress goes.

• dilation = dy-LAY-shun
• deterioration = di-teer-ee-uh-RAY-shun
• medication = medi-CA-tion
• examination = ex-am-i-NA-tion
• resuscitation = re-sus-ci-TA-tion
• malpresentation = mal-pre-sen-TA-tion
• contractions = kun-TRAK-shunz
• infection = in-FEC-tion

CautionAdding a further suffix does not move the stress: gestational is built from gestation and stays jes-TAY-shun-al. And the rule does not reach everything – contemporary (kon-TEM-pruh-ree) belongs to no pattern at all, which is why it is the least urgent word on the sheet.

how to maintain a small talk

how to make small talk

The verb is fixed – you make small talk – and the noun is uncountable, so no a.

Every passive carries a be: was destroyed, has BEEN written, is BEING built – never drop it.

it have an aluminium part

it has an aluminium part

Singular subject, singular verb.

China people are taller than Korea

Chinese people are taller than Koreans

A comparison has two sides, and in English both sides must be the same kind of thing. Match the sides: people to people, or country to country.

WhyMandarin compares with bǐ ('compared to'): wǒ bǐ tā gāo – 'I compared-to him tall'. That structure is lean – no am, no -er, no than – and the second half can be very short indeed, because context carries it.

many air conditioner

many air conditioners (or much air conditioning)

Many requires a plural countable noun; much requires an uncountable one.

Unless already means IF NOT – never negate it twice.

it was like in cooker

like being in an oven

A cooker is a hob or stove; the hot enclosed box is an oven.

WhyA false friend: Polish piekarnik is the oven, and cooker looks like the obvious English match but names a different appliance.

attention for detail

attention to detail

Attention to detail is a fixed collocation – store it as a whole unit, not as noun plus a chosen preposition.

WhyRussian внимание к деталям ('attention to details') uses the dative к, and that case-marked к nudges towards the wrong English preposition.

By the end of the week I felt deconcentrated.

By the end of the week I felt unfocused.

Built from Spanish rather than recalled from English. Distracted works too; deconcentrated is not a word.

Every agentless passive hides somebody. Ask: by whom?

The -NATAL family

The -natal words are one family with one stress, on NAY. Learning a new member is not learning a new word – it is the same word with a different prefix, and the stress does not move.

• post-NAY-tal
• nee-oh-NAY-tal
• pree-NAY-tal
• an-tee-NAY-tal

CautionThis family sits outside the -tion rule, so do not try to apply the -tion test to it – antenatal is an-tee-NAY-tal, not an-te-NA-tion-style.

it would take you a fortune

it would cost you a fortune

Time takes but money costs – a visit costs a fortune.

Hypothetical? Add would. If I had known, I would have studied.

If someone try to

if someone tries to

Someone is grammatically singular however many people it might mean.

some Europe countries interest me

some European countries interest me

The place has to change shape before it can describe a noun – China → Chinese, Europe → European, Japan → Japanese, Spain → Spanish – and the ending is different almost every time. It's a list, not a rule.

WhyMandarin builds these by putting nouns together: Ōuzhōu guójiā is literally 'Europe countries' and Zhōngguó rén is literally 'China person'. Both are perfectly formed Mandarin; translate them straight across and you get Europe countries and China people.

I felt modern city

I felt it was a modern city

English rarely drops a subject, and a reported impression needs its own clause: I felt [it was] a modern city.

WhyKorean drops anything the listener can recover from context, including subjects and objects, so under speaking speed the English subject can go missing.

Had I known. Were it extended. Should it fail. Drop the IF, front the verb.

taking response for decisions

taking responsibility for decisions

Response is the reply; the noun for duty is responsibility and the adjective is responsible.

WhyPolish odpowiedzialność and odpowiedzialny both trace to one root, so English forces a choice the first language does not have to make.

at those area

in that area

A bounded region takes in, not at. And those is plural – a single area takes that.

WhyRussian encodes location with case, so a location idea can surface as at where English wants in.

It was the weakest essay I ever had done.

It was the weakest essay I had ever done.

Ever sits between the auxiliary and the participle: had ever done, have ever seen, will ever know.

A clean sheet is not the finish line – it is permission to be given harder work.

The -ic / -ical stress rule

Words ending in -ic or -ical stress the syllable immediately before that ending – the same shape as the -tion rule, applied to a different suffix.

• obsTETric
• pae-dee-A-tric
• ana-TOMical

CautionEnglish stress is famously irregular, but the part that is rule-governed happens to include most long medical vocabulary, because those words came from Latin through French and carried their stress rules with them.

to maintain high degree of accuracy

to maintain a high degree of accuracy

A high degree of is a first-mention, singular countable frame – it needs a.

WhyUkrainian has no a/the, so both directions of article error come from the same root: under-use on first-mention countables, over-use on generic uncountables.

No DO, no negative: doesn't have, don't focus – the helper carries the negative.

it happened several problems

there were several problems

THERE introduces existence; IT stands in for a specific thing. Where the subject genuinely follows the verb, English needs there.

WhyCatalan and Spanish comfortably put the subject after the verb when the event matters more than the actor (van sorgir diversos problemes), and no dummy subject is needed. The instinct that English wanted a placeholder was right; only the choice of placeholder was wrong.

we help the people work there to do some cleaning

the people who work there

who links the two halves so you don't have to start a new sentence: the people who work there.

WhyMandarin often names a topic and then comments on it, sometimes repeating the thing with a pronoun: the book I read, it was good. English prefers to stitch the two parts with a single reference word instead.

playing a piano

playing the piano

Musical instruments take the: play the piano, play the violin. Sports and games take no article at all: play tennis, play chess.

But for. Without. A whole conditional in two words.

since four years

for four years

For plus a length of time (for four years); since plus a starting point (since 2022).

WhyPolish od covers both, so one preposition has to be split into two in English.

make some conclusions

draw some conclusions

English fixes the verb as draw with conclusions. Collocations are learned as whole phrases, never assembled.

WhyRussian сделать выводы is literally 'make conclusions', so the calque transfers whole.

My colleague review the contracts and then send them to the client's.

My colleague reviews the contracts and then sends them to the client.

The third-person -s and a stray Saxon genitive on a word that is not possessing anything. Both are Spanish-speaker signatures at C1.

FOR a length. SINCE a point. Always with a perfect.

The hand test

A relative clause only describes a noun; it cannot stand alone as a sentence. Cover the who / which / that clause with your hand – what is left must still be a full sentence with its own verb. If it is not, the sentence is not finished.

• The midwives who have been working in the delivery room. – not yet a sentence
• The midwives who have been working in the delivery room will be supervised. – finished
• The mother who raised a concern is doing well.

CautionThis gets harder, not easier, as the clauses get fluent: once who and whose come automatically, the temptation is to stop when the description feels complete.

they are sharing their impressions on the social media

sharing their impressions on social media

Social media, used generically, is an uncountable mass noun and takes no article.

Whyтой / та / те / ті ('that / those') doubles as a definiteness marker in transfer and nudges the onto nouns English leaves bare – the same over-attachment that produces the Ukraine and the November.

Finished past = one past verb: went, came, invited, stayed – not 'was play', not 'he stay'.

every year they change a little bit the logotype

every year they change the logo a little

English does not allow an adverbial to sit between the verb and its direct object: move it after the object, or to the front of the clause.

WhyCatalan canvien una mica el logotip is simply correct Catalan word order carried across intact. (And in English the word is logo; logotype survives only as a typographic technical term.)

we enjoy some food in there

some food there

There already means 'in that place', so in there doubles up.

an impact for me

an impact on me

Have an impact on something or someone – the preposition is fixed by the noun, not chosen by meaning.

A clean sheet is a floor, not a ceiling. Stop protecting it and start spending it.

in work

at work

You are at work – the place or state takes at, not in.

WhyPolish routes these relations through case endings rather than dedicated prepositions, so fixed English pairs transfer unevenly.

it's enough strong

it's strong enough

Enough follows the adjective it modifies: strong enough, fast enough, clear enough.

WhyRussian достаточно сильный puts 'enough' before the adjective, where English puts it after.

I have create a big law firm

I have created a big law firm

After HAVE, the participle: created, decided, organised.

WhySpanish builds the perfect with haber plus a regular participle, so the structure transfers; what does not transfer is the English irregular set and the quiet, often inaudible -ed.

Eventuellt means possibly. Eventually means in the end. Never swap them.

Say the object once

When that / which / who is the object of a relative clause, it already is the object. Do not name it again with it, him, her or them at the end of the clause.

• the referral that I sent yesterday (not: that I sent it yesterday)
• the patient who I admitted at midnight (not: who I admitted her)
• the ward which we opened in spring (not: which we opened it)
• the notes that the student wrote last week (not: that the student wrote them)

CautionThe extra pronoun always feels like clarity and always reads as an error – the cure is to delete exactly one word, never to rewrite the clause.

I listen English radio

I listen to English radio

Listen always takes TO.

WhyIn Ukrainian слухати governs the accusative directly (слухати радіо, no preposition at all), so there is nothing in the first language to prompt the English to.

Good AT, interested IN, eat AT – skills and subjects take at, because Arabic fi is not English in.

I will explain you..

I will explain to you

Explain and say always need TO before a person; only tell takes the person bare. English often prefers to drop the person altogether – let me explain, I'll explain.

WhyCatalan t'explicaré and Spanish te explicaré attach the person directly as a clitic, with no preposition anywhere in sight.

in this day we clean our classrooms

on that day we cleaned

For a finished day, use that, not this: this points to now, that points away, to the past.

WhyEnglish uses this for now and near and that for finished and away; Mandarin's zhè / nà pair splits distance differently and does not do this job for time in the same way.

saw him in social media

saw him on social media

You see something on social media, on television, on the radio – the platform takes on.

Read past the middle phrase: bonds ... provide.

having a technology knowledge

having technological knowledge

Uncountables take no a: knowledge, progress. (And the adjective is technological.)

WhyPolish has no a/an or the; definiteness is carried by demonstratives, word order and case, so English's constant article decision has nothing to map onto – which is why it stays the dominant category from B2 right through C2.

during last year

during the last year

Add THE to a specific past period: during the last year, over the past year.

WhyRussian has no article equivalent, so articles are added and dropped unevenly on the English side alone.

you are not worry about what it will cost you are worry about trust

you are not worried about what it will cost – you are worried about trust

The felt state takes the -ed form: worried, interested, bored; the -ing form describes the property of the thing: worrying, interesting, boring.

WhySpanish splits BE into ser (identity) and estar (state); English folds both into BE and leaves the work to the adjective ending. Estar preocupado maps to be worried, with -ed doing the job the Spanish participle does.

Hardly ANY. Decided NOT TO. English negation sits early.

Match the clocks – second or third?

Both the second and third conditional imagine something that is not the case; the only question is which clock. Second is an unreal now or future; third looks back at an unreal past. Ask each conditional one question: am I imagining now, or looking back?

• Second (unreal now): If there were enough staff, the ward would run smoothly.
• Third (unreal past): If there had been enough staff last night, the ward would have run smoothly.

CautionThe tell is in the second half: would + verb means present or future; would have + participle means past. Match the if-clause to it – were for now, had + participle for the past.

it may serve a litmus test of improve police performance

it may serve as a litmus test of improved police performance

The frame is serve AS a litmus test OF something – both small words are compulsory. And after of, an adjective or noun, not a bare verb.

WhyUkrainian служити takes the instrumental case to mean 'serve as' (служити прикладом, 'serve as an example') – the case ending is the as, so English needs a word where Ukrainian needs only an ending.

-ed feels it, -ing causes it: I am interested; the show is interesting.

they are a really good product design

they are a really good piece of product design

Design as an abstract discipline is uncountable, so a plural subject cannot equal a design. English offers three exits: the unit noun (a piece of design), the adjective route (well designed), or a singular subject (the shoe is a good design).

this castles are in the air

these castles are in the air

this / these must match the noun: this for one, these for many.

WhyMandarin points with zhè ('this') and nà ('that') and they don't change whether you mean one or many: zhè zuò chéngbǎo is 'this castle', zhè xiē chéngbǎo is 'these castles' – the zhè itself never moves; a separate little word (xiē) does the pluralising. English hides the number inside the pointing-word.

when I arrived, I want to see the colleges

when I arrived, I wanted to see the colleges

Past stays past right across the sentence: once one verb is in the past, every finite verb in the sentence follows.

WhyKorean sets the time once, with a past suffix on the final verb or a time word, and leaves the rest of the sentence neutral – so English's requirement to re-mark every verb has to be added.

in my opinion company never innovate

in my opinion a company never innovates

A generic singular countable still needs its article – a company – and the third-person -s follows.

WhyWith no article system in the first language, the article has to be added consciously on every noun rather than copied.

the public transport

public transport

Drop THE from a generic uncountable. The rule: specific or identified → the; generic mass → none.

WhyWith no Russian article system to translate from, the same speaker both adds and omits – the mirror-image errors are one system, not two.

it's a elegant meeting

it's an elegant meeting

The article matches the next sound, not the next letter.

Superlative + present perfect: the safest setting I have EVER used.

The clinical article

Clinical English is not fully regular, so the frequent ones are learned as fixed phrases. A process used as a function takes no article; a named, specific place still takes the; and uncountables take nothing at all.

• go to theatre, keep a patient in hospital (like at university) – no article
• to the labour suite, to the postnatal ward, on the ward – the
• we give care, she needs support with breastfeeding, labour was prolonged – nothing

CautionThe trap runs both ways: the same speaker who drops the before postnatal ward will add it before theatre. Decide per phrase, not per habit.

he was taking an interview from

he was interviewing / he was conducting an interview with

English splits the event by role: the journalist conducts an interview with someone (or simply interviews them); the person who answers gives an interview to the outlet.

WhyUkrainian брати інтерв'ю у is literally 'to take an interview from', and it calques whole – a complete, natural phrase in the source that arrives as a complete, unnatural one in English.

The three sizes of time

English does not ask which word you started from in your first language; it sorts time expressions by size. A point takes AT, a day or a date takes ON, and a long stretch takes IN.

• at 7am
• at the weekend
• on Monday
• on 9 July
• in the morning
• in summer
• in October
• in 2026

CautionThe one exception to learn alone is at night – every other part of the day takes in. Three sizes, three words: that single picture turns a count of eight preposition errors into one thing to understand.

a lot fun

a lot of fun

a lot of – the of is part of the phrase: a lot of fun, a lot of people.

The three sounds of -ed

The English -ed ending has three pronunciations: /t/ after a voiceless sound, /d/ after a voiced sound, and a full extra syllable /ɪd/ only after a t or d.

• watched, kicked, washed – /t/
• played, cleaned, filmed – /d/
• painted, wanted, decided – /ɪd/

CautionKorean does not end syllables in these clusters, so the temptation is to give every -ed its own beat. Let the ending land lightly – it is a full syllable only in the /ɪd/ set.

one of challenges was lack of knowledge

one of the challenges was a lack of knowledge

A specific, identifiable set takes the – one of the challenges – and a lack is a singular countable.

WhyPolish carries definiteness by context rather than by an article, so a defined group arrives without the marker English requires.

one of the most important experience

one of the most important experiences

One of the... is always followed by a plural: you are picking one out of a group, so the group has to be more than one.

I love talk with people

I love talking with people

After love, enjoy and hate, English takes the gerund.

WhySpanish me encanta hablar licenses a bare infinitive after the verb of liking; English does not.

C2 isn't about being correct – it's about being the thing a native would say.

We expect it to ease after the week 22nd.

We expect it to ease after week 22.

Numbered units of a schedule – week 22, day 5, room 4 – take no article and no ordinal.

they are playing jokes at each other

they are playing jokes on each other

Three English frames worth separating: play a joke ON someone (a prank), make a joke ABOUT something (a remark), joke WITH someone (banter).

WhyUkrainian жартувати pairs with з or над, neither of which maps to English on.

The ITS / IT'S substitution test

IT'S can only ever mean it is or it has. If you cannot substitute one of those two, the word you want is ITS, with no apostrophe.

• admired for its materials
• the brand and its logo
• it's been redesigned twice
• it's a good piece of design

CautionFor anyone whose writing is read on packaging, in decks or in filings, this is the highest-visibility small error in English – it costs nothing to check and a great deal to leave in.

I keep eat it

I keep eating it

After keep, the -ing form. The same goes for stop, enjoy, finish, avoid, mind: I keep eating, I enjoy reading, I finished writing.

Whywǒ yīzhí chī is 'I continuously eat' – Mandarin puts the idea of continuing into a separate adverb (yīzhí) and leaves the verb untouched. English does the reverse and changes the verb itself.

The AT / ON / IN time rule

AT takes clock times, night and festivals; ON takes days and dates; IN takes months, years and longer stretches, plus parts of the day.

• at 7 o'clock, at lunchtime, at night
• on Monday, on weekdays, on my birthday
• in July, in 2026, in the morning

CautionThe weekend goes with AT in British English (at the weekend), which cuts across the days rule – learn it as a fixed phrase.

making a progress

making progress

Progress is uncountable – make progress, never a progress.

WhyEnglish splits nouns into countable and uncountable in ways Polish does not, so an unwanted article attaches to mass nouns.

one of the hardest one

one of the hardest (or: one of the hardest ones)

After one of the + superlative, either leave the noun out entirely or use the plural pro-form ones – never the singular one.

more closer

closer

One comparative marker per adjective, never two.

WhySpanish más cerca is one marker; English -er is already one, so stacking more on top doubles it.

One reference, one referent. If a reader has to guess, rewrite.

I explained the all options to her.

I explained all the options to her.

All comes before the determiner, not after it: all the options, all my patients, all that time.

she's a lawyer by her background

she's a lawyer by background

The expression is fixed and takes no possessive: by + bare noun – by background, by training, by profession.

WhyUkrainian за освітою ('by education') behaves the same way, with no possessor – so this is the English fixed frame being over-filled rather than a first-language calque.

The funnel – the size logic

AT is a point, ON is a line, surface or day, IN is an area, volume or period. The smaller and more precise the target, the smaller the preposition. This one idea covers time and place together.

• at 6 p.m. / at night / at the weekend / at Christmas
• on Friday / on 12th June / on Friday morning / on my birthday
• in June / in winter / in the morning / in the future
• at work / at the station / at the top
• on the screen / on the wall / on the third floor
• in the north / in the room / in the mountains

CautionThe funnel also decides arrival: you arrive at a building or an event, but in a town or a country.

I spent a good time with he

I had a good time with him

After a preposition, English switches the pronoun to its object form: with him, to her, for me, between us.

WhyMandarin tā serves as both 'he' and 'him' – the pronoun never changes shape according to its job in the sentence, so with he is that single Mandarin form arriving in an English slot that wanted the other one.

The switch-at-two rule

An English noun stays singular after ONE or A/AN, and takes the plural -s from two upwards. The -s arrives at exactly two – never at one.

• one hour – two hours
• one match – three matches
• a match, an hour

CautionThe rule does not reach the stubborn nouns: irregular plurals (sheep, children, people) and mass nouns (stuff, broccoli, rice, homework, information) keep their own shape however many there are.

if used in inefficient way

if used in an inefficient way

In a/an + adjective + way is a fixed frame – in an inefficient way, in an inappropriate way.

I would add an information that we don't only focus on simple metrics

I'd add that we don't only focus on simple metrics

Information is uncountable in English – no an, no plural, ever. Say I'd add that..., one more point, or a piece of information.

WhyRussian информация behaves as an ordinary count noun, so an information feels well formed. English information – like advice, news, research, feedback – takes no a and never pluralises.

they have create

they have created

After HAVE, the participle.

WhySpanish participles are regular and the perfect is built with haber, so the frame transfers; the English irregular set and the quiet -ed have to be learned separately.

With BE, count the subject: plural → are/were; singular → is/was.

The team decided a caesarean section.

The team decided on a caesarean section.

Decide takes on before the thing chosen; decide to before the action.

you might come across it in business environment

you might come across it in a business environment

A singular countable noun needs a determiner.

WhyThe first language has no article system, so the determiner has to be supplied consciously.

The transport rule

The mode of transport takes by plus a bare noun – no article, ever: by plane, by car, by bike, by train. Walking is on foot.

• by plane
• by car
• by train
• on foot

CautionNever 'through plane' and never 'by the plane'. But once you talk about being inside the vehicle, the size logic returns: on the bus (you can stand on its floor), in a taxi (a small enclosed box).

I spent a good time with him

I had a good time

English has a good time; it spends time. Both work, but they take different objects: have a good time, spend time (no a, no good needed).

The Number Rule

English demands number in two places at once: quantifier → plural noun → plural verb. Korean leaves number off both the noun and the verb, so it has to be marked twice, deliberately, every time.

• many students from different countries
• many trees were in the village
• there were no voters (not: there is no people)
• my colleagues and I were tired

CautionIrregular plurals stay irregular – children (never childrens), men, women, people. And country names are singular: the country has an election, not have.

the latter approach also have benefits

the latter approach also has benefits

A singular subject takes has and was.

WhyPolish packs person onto the verb ending, so the English -s inflection is the one that goes missing under speed.

17 millions votes

17 million votes

After a number, million / thousand / hundred stay singular. The plural only appears with of and no number: millions of votes.

WhyRussian numerals govern the case and number of the noun after them, so 17 миллионов голосов genuinely requires the plural form – the speaker is translating a plural Russian demands.

my goal is improve my English

my goal is to improve my English

An English infinitive keeps its TO.

WhySpanish uses a bare infinitive where English inserts to: mi objetivo es mejorar → my goal is TO improve.

Swedish är never changes: risken är, riskerna är – English splits is/are.

Both the mother and the baby was stable.

Both the mother and the baby were stable.

Both A and B is always plural, however singular each half looks.

the exam in the July

the exam in July

English uses no article with the names of months.

WhyUkrainian has no article system to map from, so a or the is added and dropped almost at random until the English rules settle; the over-use direction dominates.

Dependent prepositions – some words own their preposition

Certain verbs, adjectives and nouns own a preposition. Record them in your notes as a single unit – depend on, not depend – and always with an example sentence of your own.

• depend on / consist of / insist on / succeed in / belong to / focus on / participate in
• afraid of / interested in / good at / responsible for / different from / married to / proud of
• fear of / reason for / increase in / solution to / demand for / effect on

CautionThe preposition cannot be derived from meaning or from translation – it is part of the word, and learning the word without it guarantees the error.

I dislike about it

I dislike it

dislike takes its object directly, with no preposition. The about has probably wandered in from complain about or talk about, which do need it.

Every noun needs an article decision

Because Korean has no a / an / the, the English article either goes missing or, once 'add the' has been learned, over-appears. Make a fresh decision for every noun rather than a habit.

• a / an = first-mention countable: a marathon, a music festival, a mobile phone
• the = specific and identifiable: the pub near the city
• zero = bare place names, and zero + sports: play tennis, play chess
• the + instrument: play the piano; the + named period: the twentieth century

CautionThe over-correction trap is real: having learned to add the, learners start attaching it to bare place names as well. Place names take no article.

it was focused to deliver

focused on delivering

English pairs each verb with a fixed preposition and, after it, an -ing form rather than a to-infinitive: focus on, be involved in, dive into.

WhyPolish routes 'on / in / into' through case endings rather than dedicated prepositions, so the verb-plus-preposition pair has to be learned as a unit.

I made a conclusion

I drew a conclusion (or simply: I concluded)

English pairs verbs and nouns by habit, not logic: you make a mistake but draw a conclusion. These are stored whole, like vocabulary.

WhyRussian делать covers English's do and make and more besides: делать ошибку → make a mistake, делать вывод → draw a conclusion. Same Russian verb, two different English verbs, and neither is the one you would guess.

one of the first thing

one of the first things

One of the + superlative or ordinal always takes a plural noun.

Swedish har + supine = have + V3: jag har sett = I have seen. It transfers.

It is more important to document it immediately.

It is important to document it immediately.

A comparative with nothing to compare against. If there is no than, there is usually no more.

if the Germany hadn't

if Germany hadn't

Country names take no article in modern English.

WhyUkrainian marks definiteness through word order, case and demonstratives rather than articles, so the English article is supplied by hand and attaches to proper nouns that want nothing at all.

a woman that practises

a woman who practises

For a person, WHO is the natural relative pronoun – that is possible, but who reads better. And inside a relative clause the pronoun (that / which / who) already is the subject, so it is never resumed with a second it.

more bamboo woods are being grown

more bamboo forests are being planted

Collocation, not grammar: you plant forests, and the English word for a large managed stand of trees here is forest.

The preposition is glued to the verb

Korean marks place and role with a particle on the noun (-e 'to/at', -eseo 'from/at'), so one Korean form does the work English splits across to / at / in / on / for. Store each English verb with its preposition, as a single unit.

• arrive AT a place · go / come TO a place · be / live IN a place
• wait FOR someone · get along WITH someone · talk TO someone
• have an impact ON something · see something ON social media · take part IN something
• no preposition at all: go abroad, come here, go home, stay there

CautionSome verbs take no preposition, and adding one is just as wrong as omitting one: never in here, never to abroad.

faster feedbacks from market

faster feedback from the market

Feedback is uncountable – no plural, ever – and the market is a specific, identifiable one.

WhyEnglish draws the count/mass line differently from Polish, so feedback, documentation, knowledge and progress attract an unwanted plural.

I own pipeline of creating datasets from customers

I own the pipeline for creating datasets from customer data

THE marks a thing both speaker and listener can identify; and a noun's purpose takes for + -ing, not of.

WhyRussian has no a/an or the – specificity rides on demonstratives (этот / тот), on word order (a sentence-initial topic is usually definite, post-verbal usually indefinite) and on case. So I own pipeline isn't a slip: there is simply no Russian switch to translate.

business between persons

business between people

Persons is legal-register only; ordinary English uses people.

göra is not a guide: Swedish göra is both DO and MAKE – learn the English pairs.

I haven't neighbours

I don't have neighbours (or, more colloquially: I haven't got any neighbours)

When have means possess, British English makes it negative with don't/doesn't, not by adding -n't to have: I don't have a car, she doesn't have time. I haven't got is the other correct option – but then you need got.

we have one month of the holidays

one month of holidays

General plural and uncountable nouns take no article.

the most extrovert people

the most extroverted people

The adjective is extroverted; extrovert is the noun. The superlative frame itself is sound – the slip belongs to word form, not to the comparison.

The Great Wall was built by people over many countries centuries

The Great Wall was built over many centuries

Centuries (time), not countries (places) – and by people says nothing, so drop it. The passive exists so you can leave an obvious doer out.

Re-mark the tense every time

Korean sets the time once – a past suffix on the final verb, or a time word – and lets the rest of the sentence stay neutral. English re-marks tense on every finite verb in the sentence.

• When I arrived, there were many trees (not are)
• – Did you have a good week? – Yes, I had a good week (not I have)
• for three years (duration) versus three years ago (a point) – never for three years ago
• I have studied (you did it) versus I have been raised (it was done to you)

CautionDo not use have been + V3 for things you did yourself – I have been studied English is a passive, and says something quite different.

if engine flag a transaction

if the engine flags a transaction

In a zero or first conditional, the present-tense verb after a singular subject always carries -s.

WhyPolish conjugates the verb fully for person, so English's single surviving ending – the third-person -s – feels redundant and drops, especially at speed inside a longer clause like a conditional.

I also responsible for shipping the releases in time

I am also responsible for shipping the releases on time

English makes the copula obligatory in every present-tense statement: IS/ARE + adjective, IS + noun, IS + location.

WhyRussian drops the present-tense copula in most contexts – он врач ('he doctor' = 'he is a doctor'), это интересно ('this interesting') – while past and future tenses do mark it (он был врачом). That is why the error appears only in present-tense statements.

the preparation have to be general

the preparation has to be general

Singular subject, singular verb.

Swedish som does all of who/which/that. English makes you choose.

If I would have more staff, I would feel calmer

If I had more staff, I would feel calmer

No would inside the if-clause. The second conditional puts a past form in the if-clause and would in the result clause.

I would give younger generation more opportunities

give the younger generation more opportunities

A specific, identified noun takes the.

WhyWith no article system in the first language, errors run in both directions at once: the same sample over-uses the on proper nouns and under-uses it on a specified group.

it remains historically with us because it's useful

it has remained with us over time because it's useful

Duration up to now is the present perfect's job: it has remained, it has stayed.

Chinese people are taller than Korean

Chinese people are taller than Koreans

Both sides of a comparison must match in kind and in number: people is plural, so the second side must be too.

WhyMandarin's bǐ comparison lets the second half stay very short, because context carries it; English wants a second half that matches the first.

The light-verb club

English splits its light-verb territory three ways – PLAY a match, DO homework, MAKE a plan – and each noun has already chosen its verb. Most other languages do not split it at all: one all-purpose 'do' verb covers the ground that English divides. Learners from six different first languages have now been booked for the same error, each one letting their own light verb spread too far across English: Polish robić, Slovak robiť, Russian delat', Spanish tomar, Catalan, and Korean hada – which produced did a few matches for played a few matches. The fix is identical in every case and has nothing to do with the individual languages: learn the noun and its English verb as a fixed team, stored together, rather than translating the verb.

Seen inKorean, Polish, Slovak, Russian, Spanish, Catalan

if scope creep happen

if scope creep happens

He, she, it and singular nouns take verb + s – even inside an if-clause.

WhyBecause Polish marks person richly on the verb, the lone English inflection carries no information the speaker feels is needed, and it is the first thing lost under pressure.

I manage the team of about 6 people

I manage a team of about six people

First mention of a countable noun takes A. THE would imply the listener already knows which team.

WhyRussian has no words equivalent to a/an or the; specificity is carried by demonstratives (этот, тот), by word order and by case marking, so both directions of error are predicted.

if someone is ask me

if someone asks me

Someone is singular, and there is no auxiliary here to support a bare verb.

Delete-test: still know which one? Yes → non-defining. No → defining.

is the more stable it has been

is the most stable it has been

The frame 'the ... it has been' takes a superlative, not a comparative.

we don't have a really good contact

really good contact

Uncountable nouns such as contact and accommodation take no a.

how many perfumes we have seen

CreditedA correctly built present perfect – HAVE plus participle, in the right order – which is precisely the auxiliary chain a perfect passive runs on. The engine is demonstrably working, which supports the day's verdict rather than merely failing to contradict it.

The hidden-common-noun rule

A name takes THE only when an ordinary word is hiding inside it. Names of people and cities take no article at all.

• the United Kingdom
• the Yangtze River
• the Great Wall
• Shanghai
• Beijing
• London

CautionIt is a rule of thumb, not a law of nature: it works because the ordinary word (kingdom, river, wall) is the thing THE is really attached to.

was choosed

was chosen

The passive takes the third form of the verb, and choose is irregular: choose / chose / chosen.

if someone find a potential data breach

if someone finds a potential data breach

Someone, everyone and anyone are singular – someone finds.

I'm ready for next challenges

I'm ready for the next challenge

Next points to one specific thing, so it takes THE and a singular noun. If you mean challenges in general, use new with a bare plural: new challenges.

WhyWith no Russian article system, the determiner has to be chosen consciously in English rather than translated.

you don't have to explain a judge what is the burden of proof

you don't have to explain to a judge what the burden of proof is

Explain never takes a bare person: always explain something TO someone. The embedded question also reverts to statement order.

WhySpanish explicar and decir take an indirect-object pronoun with no preposition (me explicó, 'he explained to-me'), so English feels as though it should allow explain me. It does not.

Swedish i is not always English in: delas i → divided into. Store the verb and preposition together.

the birth plan that we agreed it last week

the birth plan that we agreed last week

When that / which / who is the object of the relative clause, it already is the object – do not name it again with it, him or her at the end.

good contact to our professors

contact with

The noun contact takes with, not to.

WhySlavic prepositions map unpredictably onto English ones, so the English particle drifts; these are best stored as fixed pairs rather than derived.

at 7am

CreditedInside a sentence booked for a preposition error, the clock time was already right: a point takes at, and that half was done without thinking. Naming what is already correct is what makes the correction next to it small.

The proper-noun groups list

Most proper nouns take no article – people, cities, most countries, continents, single mountains. But a small group does take the, and it is worth learning as a list: rivers, seas and oceans, mountain ranges, deserts, and plural or union countries.

• Mount Everest
• China
• Asia
• the Yangtze
• the Pacific
• the Himalayas
• the Gobi
• the Netherlands

CautionOne person, no the. One river, the. There's no logic – it's a list. A useful hook, not a rule: one thing takes nothing; long or many things take the.

so that I could speak

so that I can speak

For a purpose that is true now, use can (so that I can speak). Could is for past purposes (I studied hard last year so that I could pass) or polite and hypothetical ones. Present goal → can; past goal → could.

if he have another offer

if he has another offer

Have becomes has in the third-person singular.

it's a mixture of this and the real life

it's a mixture of this and real life

Abstract generics take no article at all: real life, data quality, product management, urban planning.

WhyThis is the mirror of the omission errors: there an article was needed and left out; here one was supplied that English does not want. Both come from the same absent Russian system.

you cannot say the witness what they have to say

you cannot tell the witness what to say

TELL takes a person directly; SAY and EXPLAIN require TO. In most legal contexts TELL is the natural choice.

WhySpanish decir covers both TELL and SAY, which is exactly where the English three-way split disappears. The mirror-image trap sits in the same system: the personal a (llamó al doctor) tempts *I called to the doctor*.

Grammar done? Then work the fixed units: particles, prepositions, collocations.

the patient who I reassured her

the patient who I reassured

Say the object once. The relative pronoun who has already done the work; the extra pronoun is one word too many.

I was in a plane

on a plane

English uses on for travel on a plane, a train or a bus.

WhyUkrainian encodes with case morphology many relations English marks with prepositions, so the English particle is guessed rather than recalled.

Has been redesigned. Is being tested. Insert BEEN and the perfect goes passive.

The empty by-phrase test

Keep the agent only when it earns its place. The passive exists so you can leave the doer out – that is the whole trick. Ask: does the by-phrase tell the reader something new?

• Honey is made by bees – keep: that is the fun fact.
• The Great Wall was built by people – cut: who else?
• The first photo of a black hole was taken by eight telescopes working together – keep.

CautionIf the agent is people / someone / they / workers-in-general, cut it. If it names a surprising or specific doer, keep it.

it must been a trick

it must have been a trick

Past deduction is modal + have + past participle: must have been, can't have gone, might have forgotten.

if someone is underperformer

if someone is an underperformer

A role named after the copula takes an article on first mention – an underperformer.

WhyPolish has no articles at all, so the noun after is reads as a label and the article slot stays empty.

in next company

at my next company

English needs a determiner before next company, and a company as a workplace takes AT: you work AT a company, IN a team, IN a sector, ON a product, WITH engineers, FOR a manager.

WhyRussian encodes with case morphology many relations that English marks with a separate preposition, so the English preposition cannot be derived and must be stored as part of a fixed unit.

the instruction of the doctor

the doctor's instructions

English keeps of available, but for people and organisations it strongly prefers the possessive 's; and instructions is plural.

WhySpanish has no possessive 's – possession is expressed with de plus the owner (la casa de mi madre) – so the of-construction maps perfectly and becomes the default. The of-versions are not wrong; they simply carry a faint accent of translation, which is the last thing to leave a C1 speaker's English.

Never double the comparative: bigger, not 'more bigger'; better, not 'more better'.

My shift that is very busy this night.

My shift is very busy tonight.

If you only want to say something about the noun, you do not need a relative clause at all – drop the that and let the verb do its job. And the fixed adverb is tonight, not this night.

the Ukraine

Ukraine

Country names take no article in modern English; the Ukraine is an outdated form.

WhyUkrainian has no articles to copy, so under exam speed the English article appears reflexively where the first language offers nothing to translate.

IT'S means IT IS. If you can't substitute it, write ITS.

The unfinished-passive check

After a modal, the passive still needs its full participle: the pattern is modal + be + participle. Point at the last verb – if it isn't a participle, the passive is unfinished.

• They should be protected.
• The wall must be repaired.
• The cheetah can be seen running.

more better

better

One comparative marker only – either the -er ending or more, never both.

my leaderships goes wrong

my leadership goes wrong

Leadership is uncountable – no plural.

WhyPolish draws the count/mass line differently, so English uncountables attract an unwanted plural – the same pattern that produced feedbacks earlier in the record.

I hadn't visited any concerts for a while

I hadn't been to a concert in a while

English visits places and people (visit a client, visit a site) but goes to or has been to events (a concert, a conference, a meetup).

WhyRussian посещать covers both places and events, which is where the calque comes from.

when I woke up was terrible

when I woke up, it was terrible

English requires a subject in every non-imperative clause, including the dummy subjects IT and THERE.

WhySpanish drops it entirely (era terrible) because person and number live on the verb ending. Drill the dummy frames: IT WAS TERRIBLE, IT IS IMPORTANT, THERE IS A RISK, THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS.

Swedish V2 is your advantage: Aldrig har jag... → Never have I...

When I supervise them, I would be tired

When I supervise them, I will be tired

A real future event takes will. Would is for the unreal or the hypothetical.

from the November 2025 to the April 2026

from November 2025 to April 2026

Months are proper nouns and take no article.

THERE introduces existence. IT stands for a thing.

Does the clause pick, or just add?

A defining clause picks one out of many – no commas. A non-defining clause adds extra information about something already unique – commas on both sides. Quick check: is the noun already unique, such as a name or my school? Yes, commas.

• the boy who arrived late has crumbs – picks him out, no commas
• Shanghai, which receives goods from everywhere, is a huge port – already unique, commas

CautionChinese doesn't mark the difference at all (both are de-clauses), so the commas are doing work the first language never asks for – which is why they go missing rather than being misplaced.

Never I have seen a sadder plate

Never have I seen a sadder plate

When the fronted element is negative, English demands inversion after it: the auxiliary comes before the subject. Never will I eat that; Never have I seen.

unformal

informal

English negates this one with in-. The un-/in-/im-/il-/ir- choice is lexical and learned word by word: unhappy but informal, impossible, irregular.

WhyPolish nieformalny uses one negative prefix for everything, so a single English prefix is generalised across words that each take their own.

That can't be real, I must be dreaming.

That can't be real – I must be dreaming.

The dash is the right repair here: it keeps the speed of the thought, which a full stop would slow down.

they wanted I be a doctor

they wanted me to be a doctor

English uses an infinitival complement after verbs of wanting: WANT + person + TO + base verb. The same frames run through need me to, ask me to, expect me to.

WhySpanish uses the subjunctive after verbs of wanting, needing and requiring: querían que yo fuera médica ('they wanted that I were a doctor'). English almost never does.

No V2 in English: Yesterday I found... – not 'Yesterday found I'.

If the uterus was not contract well, I would commence a fundal massage.

If the uterus were not contracting well, I would commence a fundal massage. (or: did not contract)

The second conditional needs a past form in the if-clause – were not contracting or did not contract, never was not contract. The result half (would commence) was already right.

apart from effort, the luck is a very important point

luck is a very important point

Abstract and uncountable nouns used in general – luck, poverty, money – take no article.

WhyWith definiteness carried by context rather than by a determiner in the first language, abstract nouns attract an English the that adds nothing.

IN the shop. ON the internet – or just ONLINE.

Point at both sides

A comparison has two sides, and in English both must be the same kind of thing – and match in number. Before finishing any comparison, point at the two things and confirm.

• Chinese people are taller than Koreans (people to people)
• China is bigger than Korea (country to country)
• The scenery in one city is more beautiful than that in another (scenery to scenery)

CautionEnglish lets you drop the repeated noun, but only if you leave something behind to prove it was there – the pro-form that, or an apostrophe: my school is bigger than my cousin's.

I pretty like his house

I really like his house (or: I quite like his house)

Pretty cannot modify a verb – it modifies adjectives and adverbs (pretty good, pretty quickly). To soften a verb, use really or quite.

it was first in my family

it was the first one in my family

Ordinals and one-anaphora are always the: the first one, the previous one.

WhyPolish has no article system; specificity rides on demonstratives (ten / ta / to), word order and case, so at C2 the residue clusters on the predicate nominal – the noun after IS or WAS, where it reads as a label and the article gets dropped.

I am on my feet most of the times.

I am on my feet most of the time.

Time is uncountable in this phrase. Most of the time, not times – the plural is the giveaway that the noun was chosen before the structure.

I could explain this in a Spanish perspective

from a Spanish perspective

The viewpoint preposition is FROM.

If there were enough staff, it could have been easier.

If there had been enough staff, it would have been easier.

Match the clocks. The second conditional imagines an unreal present or future (if there were ... I would ...); the third looks back at an unreal past (if there had been ... I would have ...). Here the shift was already over, so both halves belong in the past.

they doesn't earn the money

they don't earn money

Money used in the general sense takes no article, and a plural subject takes don't.

Nothing sits between the verb and its object: change the logo a little.

Learn FROM a person, learn AT a place

When the lesson comes from a person, English uses learn from. You learn at a place, but from a person.

• I learned from my teacher
• they learned from a great thinker
• I learn at school

CautionChinese marks 'learn from someone' with a word like gēn or xiàng, which doesn't line up neatly with either English preposition – so store the pair learn from together as one item.

chall-en-ged

challenged – 'CHAL-unjd' (two syllables, soft g)

The -ed ending does not add a syllable here; challenged is two beats, ending in a soft -jd.

it was offline game

it was an offline game

Every singular countable noun after IS or WAS takes a/an on first mention.

WhyWith no article system in the first language, the noun after the copula feels like a label rather than a thing, and the article is dropped.

It is faster to travel from the ground than to fly.

It is faster to travel by land than to fly.

The set takes by and no article: by land, by sea, by air, by rail, by car.

the most big decision

the biggest decision

Short adjective takes -est; long adjective takes THE MOST. Never both.

WhySpanish builds both degrees on más, so the English split by adjective length has no counterpart to transfer from.

If the mother needed to support with breastfeeding, we would support her

If the mother needed support with breastfeeding, we would support her

She needs to be supported, not to support – the noun support is what is needed. The conditional frame around it was right.

not everyone has the equal opportunities to succeed

equal opportunities

A general plural noun phrase takes no article.

Different FROM or TO – never than, never as. Similar TO, never similar than.

The nouns that feel plural and aren't

A small group of English nouns describes many things but behaves as one: no -s, no a, and always a singular verb.

• the scenery is beautiful
• the furniture is new
• the information is useful
• advice, luggage, weather, traffic

CautionIf you need to count them, English borrows a word – a piece of furniture, two pieces of advice – which is very nearly the classifier system Chinese already uses (yī gè rén), just in far fewer places.

last week is very hot

last week was very hot

A past time marker (last week, yesterday, in 2020) moves the verb to the past too.

it was even previous one

it was even the previous one

One-anaphora takes the – the previous one, the second one.

What I see is surprising me.

What I see surprises me.

A reaction is a state, not an activity in progress. States – surprise, know, believe, mean, cost – take the simple.

more harder

harder

One comparative marker per adjective.

WhySpanish más is one marker; the English -er is already one, so the two double up.

The departments that the team covers at night are often very busy.

CreditedA defining relative clause built correctly and, crucially, finished: the main clause has its own verb (are often very busy). This is the exact structure that was left hanging elsewhere in the same piece of writing, so it shows the target is available and not yet automatic.

in the most cases

in most cases

In most cases takes no article.

By bus, on the bus – and in only for a car.

Number first, then distance

this is one thing near you, these is many things near you – English changes the pointing-word for number. Then distance in time: this is for now and near, that takes over for anything finished or far.

• these castles
• these children
• on that day last week
• this morning, right now

CautionMandarin's zhè doesn't change for number and doesn't split near from far in time, so this is a habit to build rather than a rule to puzzle over.

I prefer to living in different countries

I prefer to live (or living) in different countries

Prefer takes either to + base verb (prefer to live) or the -ing form (prefer living) – but never to + -ing.

it's tricky question

it's a tricky question

After the copula the article is not optional: a tricky question.

two people was playing

two people were playing

People is plural, always WERE / ARE / HAVE.

easier that the last

easier than the last

A comparative takes THAN.

WhySpanish que tempts the English that: comparative que and complementiser que are the same word.

Then, the second ward, which is called the infant ward, is where nurses work.

CreditedA non-defining relative clause with both commas correctly placed, embedded mid-sentence – the harder of the two relative types, and produced unprompted in free writing rather than in a controlled exercise.

it depend on the situation

it depends on the situation

Third-person singular present takes -s.

WhyUkrainian marks person and number richly on the verb, so agreement itself is second nature – but the specific English -s is a separate small ending that drops under speaking pressure.

Made WITH or FROM for the material; BY only for the doer.

The perfect links two moments

Every perfect tense links two moments in time: a point, and what was already true before it. Change where you stand in time and a different set of perfect tenses opens up.

• present perfect: have / has + V3
• present perfect continuous: have / has been + V-ing
• past perfect: had + V3
• past perfect continuous: had been + V-ing
• future perfect: will have + V3
• future perfect continuous: will have been + V-ing

CautionIf the action connects to now, use have/has + V3, not the past simple: not 'I played since I was six' but 'I have been playing since I was six'.

I don't specific him

I can't place him (or: I'm not sure exactly who he is)

Specific is an adjective, not a verb – it cannot take an object. To say you cannot quite identify someone, English uses place: I can't place him.

it really make me powerful

it really makes me powerful

Third-person singular takes -s.

WhyPolish marks person and number on the verb richly but in a different system, so the English -s is the one ending that goes missing under speed.

a few of churches

a few churches

A few, several and many attach straight to the plural noun. Of returns only with THE: a few of the churches we saw.

WhyRussian quantifiers govern the genitive case, and English of is the closest translation of a genitive ending – so the ear supplies an of that English then rejects.

moreover there is been new plans

moreover, there have been new plans

Present perfect: HAVE/HAS + BEEN. Plans is plural, so HAVE.

WhySpanish haber does two jobs English splits between two verbs: existence (hay 'there is', había 'there was') and the perfect auxiliary (he visto 'I have seen', ha habido 'there has been'). The two English auxiliaries collapse into one Spanish family and the wrong one surfaces under pressure.

If we had not acted quickly, the patient's condition could have worsened.

CreditedA clean third conditional produced unprompted in free writing, with the negative in the if-clause and a modal perfect in the result – and it stands in a piece where the second/third distinction was the identified fault line, so it shows the structure is there when the writing is unhurried.

when you in the right place at the right time

when you're in the right place

The present-tense copula cannot be dropped in English.

WhySlavic leaves the present-tense 'be' implied, so English feels redundant – but it is obligatory. A breath before a comparison or an opinion catches most of these.

The article trajectory: omission, then over-supply

Mandarin has no article system at all, and the predicted first-language error is omission – I went to restaurant, the book is on table – which is what fills the early reports of a Chinese-L1 learner. What this file records is the next stage. Across roughly a dozen sessions the errors flip: articles stop being left out and start being put in where English forbids them. An article in front of a city name at Session 8; the same shape in front of people's names eleven sessions later; and in between, the Chinese for the language name, a good English for the uncountable, the table tennis for the sport, and a superlative that needed a THE it wasn't given. Two different faults are hiding under one label. Omission is interference: the first language supplies nothing, so nothing appears. Over-supply is hypercorrection: the learner has learned that English demands these small words and is applying the rule slightly too widely – and it is the more advanced error of the two, because it can only be made by someone who already knows the rule exists. The typology file predicted the endpoint in writing: at C1 and above, the article errors that survive are mainly fixed expressions and proper-noun-with-THE pairs. That is exactly where this learner arrived. It also means the fix changes shape: early on you teach the article, later you teach the short list of names that refuse one.

Seen inChinese

very fantastic

fantastic (or really fantastic)

Fantastic is already an extreme adjective, so it does not take very. Use really or absolutely, or nothing at all.

people keep telling that AI will replace us

people keep saying that AI will replace us

TELL takes a person object (tell someone something); SAY does not (say something, say that...). When there is no listener in the slot, the verb is SAY.

WhyPolish mówić and powiedzieć cover both English verbs, so the split has to be memorised as a frame rather than a meaning.

most of people are complaining about the weather a lot

most people are complaining about the weather a lot

MOST attaches directly to the noun (most people, most days); most of requires THE or a possessive after it (most of the people in this town).

WhyRussian большинство людей puts people in the genitive, which whispers 'of' into the English. The ear is hearing a case ending and supplying the English word for it.

recent researches shows with scans that the entire brain is being used, it will be absurd to think that evolution...

... the entire brain is in use, and it would be absurd to think that evolution would build so costly an organ and leave it idle

Two complete sentences cannot be joined by a comma alone. English requires a conjunction (and, but, so, since), a semicolon, or a full stop.

WhyWritten Spanish is markedly more tolerant of long comma-linked chains than written English; sentences that run several independent clauses together with commas are ordinary Spanish prose and are not regarded as errors. English draws a hard line.

If I had encouraged her sooner, she would feel more confident by now.

CreditedThe mixed conditional, exactly right: an unreal past in the if-clause and a present consequence in the result. It is the hardest of the five types and it was produced correctly in a controlled exercise where the two simpler types were also in play.

it's the same in the whole Europe

it's the same in the whole of Europe

Continents take no article; to quantify one with whole, English needs the of-frame – the whole of Europe, or all over Europe.

WhyUkrainian у цілій Європі has no article to insert, and the locative case ending already does the grammatical work – there is nothing for the to attach to.

The 'at structural form' tier

A marking tier used across the classroom, not for one learner: it is applied when a frame is built correctly and the fault inside it belongs to another system. A time clause with its conjunction, subject and progressive verb all in the right places, but a subject-verb agreement slip inside it, is graded ABSORBED at structural form x1 – the clause passes, the agreement is charged to its own count. The x1 records how many separately itemisable productions the verdict rests on, so the evidence base is visible rather than implied. The companion move is the SPLIT: where several grammar families are taught in one lesson and the evidence for them differs, they are graded apart rather than averaged, so that a strong result cannot be dragged down by a weak one and a weak one cannot hide behind a strong one. Both devices exist for the same reason – a single summary verdict over mixed evidence tells the learner less than several honest ones.

Seen inChinese, Russian, Polish

developted

developed – dih-VEL-upt

Developed ends in a simple /t/ sound: no extra syllable and no -ted.

you have to tell what you do

you have to say what you do (or tell people what you do)

Tell needs its person: tell people what you do. With no person named, use say.

WhyOne Polish verb pair covers both English verbs, so the frame – not the meaning – is what has to be learned.

the palace we talked last time

the palace we talked about last time

The preposition must survive into the relative clause, stranded at the end.

WhyRussian о котором мы говорили carries the preposition on the pronoun; English drops the pronoun, so the about has to stay behind, standing guard at the end – a very English piece of engineering.

...can be affected in some times of the year, moreover there is been new plans

... at certain times of year; moreover, there have been new plans

Moreover is a linking adverb, not a conjunction: it cannot hold two clauses together on its own and needs a semicolon or a full stop in front of it. The same is true of however, therefore, nevertheless and furthermore.

WhyThe same punctuation convention: Spanish prose comma-chains independent clauses freely, so the linking adverb feels like a joiner.